Professor Park Jong-hee of Seoul National University warns of the risks posed by AI and the decline of the liberal order

Professor Park Jonghee of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University pointed out in a lecture at the 2026 Kyunghyang Forum held at Lotte Hotel in Junggu, Seoul, on the 17th that as the development of artificial intelligence coincides with the decline of the liberal order, destructive possibilities in the international community could grow. Professor Park said military AI could raise the risk of misjudgment and escalation, and that if tensions between major powers and smaller countries increase, the possibility of nuclear proliferation would also be hard to rule out. He also explained that if economic inequality in the AI era leads to social divisions, democracy could be shaken. As a solution, he emphasized that transparency, communication, and verification are needed, just as nuclear balance was managed during the Cold War. He also proposed nongovernmental exchanges, an AI hotline, and the establishment of a compute verification system.