Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon answers questions from participants during a roundtable meeting with young talents in the emerging AI and XR industries, held at the DMC Academic-Industrial Cooperation Research Center in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, on July 9. / Courtesy of Reporter Jeong Jae-hoon

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has declared "ensuring basic AI rights for youth" as a core task of the 9th elective municipal administration. As part of his push to accelerate the fostering of future industries, the mayor visited an educational site for artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) to look into ways to nurture tech talents and advance the industrial ecosystem.

Mayor Oh visited the Seoul XR Center inside the DMC Academic-Industrial Cooperation Research Center on July 9 to hold a roundtable discussion with around 50 participants, including trainees and corporate officials in the AI and XR fields. The visit was arranged to hear the challenges young people and companies face firsthand amid rapid technological shifts, and to discuss the development direction of Seoul's future industrial ecosystem in the AI era.

Prior to the discussion, Mayor Oh toured key spaces in the center, including the demonstration and evaluation room and the XR Open Lab, checking the technological level of advanced equipment. Wearing XR glasses and headsets, he personally tried out various technological contents.

During the subsequent meeting, he exchanged views on technology development, startups, global expansion, and creating an industrial ecosystem with 40 AI-XR trainees and 10 XR company representatives. Corporate officials noted that attending overseas exhibitions had served as a stepping stone for growth, and requested expanded public support for global exhibition participation, buyer matching, and market pioneering. Trainees requested advanced courses, expanded hands-on programs, and stronger support for individual creators to prevent AI education from remaining short-term.

In response, Mayor Oh said, "The educational content needs to become more substantial, and it seems further investment is required. We will allocate budget to ensure the curriculum provides practical help." He went on to emphasize, "As companies prefer to hire people who are already adept at utilizing AI, job opportunities for youth are becoming limited. The primary direction for policies handled by the government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government is to help young people enter society with the ability to use AI as naturally as their own hands and feet."

The mayor also mentioned support measures for early-stage startups and venture entrepreneurs. "There must be many hurdles faced at every stage, from product development to demonstration and global expansion," Oh said. He promised, "We will create numerous networking opportunities, including the Smart Life Week (SLW) coming up in October, so that you can meet global buyers directly and do business right here at home."

Centering on the Seoul XR Center, which expanded and relocated this year, the city runs an all-stage support system for the AI-XR industry. By building development and demonstration rooms, testing and certification facilities, and corporate collaboration spaces within the center, the city enables companies to receive tailored support from product development through testing, demonstration, certification, evaluation, and commercialization. Alongside this, it links youth to employment and entrepreneurship through AI-XR training programs.

"In an era where AI and XR technologies evolve rapidly, connecting technology and ideas to the market is more important than anything else," Mayor Oh stated. "We will act as the most dependable stepping stone so that young people can experiment with technology without fearing failure and connect it to startups and jobs, thereby shaping the future of a 'G3 Seoul' where youth and businesses grow together." He added, "We will build the Seoul XR Center into a hub that links technology, talent, and markets, and expand support from demonstration to commercialization and market path exploration, developing Sangam DMC into a global hub for the AI-XR convergence industry."

                                                                                                               Park A-ram