[AI Nexus’s 4th Chapter] AI, Power, and Security - Who Attacks, Who Defends, and Where Korea Stands (07-Oct-2026)
posted: 24-Sep-2026 & updated: 07-Oct-2026
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Invitation
Both talks and all conversations will be conducted in Korean.
🛡️ AI, POWER, AND SECURITY 🛡️
AI is no longer just a technology race. It is reshaping industry, the economy, national security, and the international order itself. Big Tech companies and nations are competing over models, chips, energy, and data, while AI agents open up attack surfaces that did not exist two years ago.
Who holds power in the age of AI? Who is attacking, who is defending, and where does Korea stand?
Join us for AI Nexus’s 4th Chapter: an evening of two talks, two lightning talks, a panel discussion, dinner, and networking, looking at AI from two angles that are rarely discussed in the same room: security and geopolitics. This forum is generously sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco, which is kindly providing food and beverage.
- Date: 7-Oct-2026 (wed)
- Time: 5pm – 8pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
- Venue: Alaska @ KOTRA / KIC Silicon Valley
- Language: Korean
- Speakers
- Min Pyo Hong - Founder & CEO of SEWORKS
- Kyeongrae Cho - Consul for AI, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco / Ministry of Science and ICT
- Panel Moderator: Sunghee Yun - Co-Founder & CTO @ Erudio Bio / Co-Founder & CEO @ Erudio Bio Korea / Co-Founder & Leader & Chair of Silicon Valley AI Nexus
- Panelists: both speakers and Kyeyeon Kim - Co-Founder & CTO of GENIANS
- Lightning Talk 1: Minha Hwang - Principal Applied Scientist at Microsoft
- Lightning Talk 2: Jongmin Sung - Knowledge Engineer @ Sailplane.ai / AI Systems Architect / Biotech and Drug Discovery Advisor and Scout
- Sponsor: The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco (food & beverage)
- Please RSVP via this link!
Event Schedule
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5pm - 5:30pm | Registration & Light Networking |
| 5:30pm - 6pm | Talk 1 – Securing the Agentic Era: How AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Attack and Defense |
| 6pm - 6:30pm | Talk 2 – AI and the New Power Dynamics |
| 6:30pm - 7pm | Panel Discussion + Questions from the Floor |
| 7pm - 7:05pm | Lightning Talk 1 – The Agentic Shift |
| 7:05pm - 7:09pm | Lightning Talk 2 – The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine: What It Really Means |
| 7:09pm - 8pm | Dinner & Networking (Generously sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco) |
Come for the security threats. Stay for the global power map. Leave with a sharper view of where AI is heading, and what Korea should do about it.
- Please RSVP via this link!
- Please visit AI Nexus Membership to learn about our AI Nexus membership for qualification and all exclusive perks you can enjoy!
- Join us at AI Nexus Members Kakaotalk Chatroom using this info (if you’re qualified)!
Read more: Why This Forum Matters · With Thanks to the Consulate General · Why You Should Attend · Target Audience
Talk Details
Talk 1 – Securing the Agentic Era: How AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Attack and Defense
Speaker – Min Pyo Hong - Founder & CEO of SEWORKS
AI has become a weapon, a target, and a shield, all at the same time.
On the offensive side, AI now writes convincing phishing campaigns in any language, finds vulnerabilities faster than human researchers, and automates attacks that once required skilled teams. At the same time, AI systems themselves have become targets. Large Language Models (LLMs) can be manipulated through prompt injection, training data can be poisoned, model weights can be stolen, and open-weight models can be modified and redistributed without their safeguards.
AI agents raise the stakes further. An agent that can read your email, browse the web, call APIs, and execute code on your behalf is extraordinarily useful, and extraordinarily dangerous when a single malicious web page or document can hijack it. The security model built for the web and the cloud was not designed for software that takes actions on its own.
This talk looks at AI security from both sides of the fight:
- How attackers are using AI today, and what has genuinely changed versus what is hype.
- The new attack surface of LLMs and agents: prompt injection, agent hijacking, data poisoning, and model theft.
- Why open-weight models and the AI supply chain create security questions that no single company can answer alone.
- How defenders are fighting back with AI-driven detection, automated red-teaming, and continuous security testing.
- What every organization building or deploying AI should be doing right now.
Why This Matters to AI Nexus
Almost everyone in our community is building with AI, deploying AI, or investing in AI. Very few of us are thinking hard enough about how those systems can be attacked. As agents move from demos into production, security stops being a specialist’s concern and becomes every builder’s problem. This talk also sets up the second talk: security is one of the places where the competition between companies and nations becomes most concrete.
Talk 2 – AI and the New Power Dynamics
Speaker – Kyeongrae Cho - Consul for AI, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco / Ministry of Science and ICT
AI is no longer simply a technology competition. It is driving change across industry, the economy, national security, and the international order.
Behind every headline about a new model or a new chip is a deeper contest over who controls the foundations of the AI era. Open-weight versus closed models, AI safety and regulation, semiconductor supply chains, the energy required to power data centers, and the rise of AI agents are not isolated issues. Together they define the interests, alliances, and rivalries of Big Tech companies and nations.
This talk will explore:
- How the competition among Big Tech companies and among nations is being reshaped by AI.
- Key flashpoints: open weights, AI safety, semiconductors, energy, and AI agents.
- How the interests of companies and governments align, and where they collide.
- Korea’s strengths in this changing global AI landscape.
- The strategic choices Korea faces in the years ahead.
Why This Matters to AI Nexus
Silicon Valley sees the AI race from the inside of its companies. Seoul sees it from the perspective of national strategy. Consul Cho, who serves at the Consulate General as Consul for AI on behalf of the Ministry of Science and ICT, stands at exactly the point where these two views meet. For Korean founders, engineers, researchers, and investors in Silicon Valley, understanding the power dynamics behind AI is no longer optional. It shapes which technologies get built, which markets open up, and which partnerships matter.
Panel Discussion – Security, Power, and Korea’s Next Move
Moderator – Sunghee Yun - Co-Founder & CTO @ Erudio Bio / Co-Founder & CEO @ Erudio Bio Korea / Co-Founder & Leader & Chair of Silicon Valley AI Nexus
Panelists
- Min Pyo Hong - Founder & CEO of SEWORKS
- Kyeongrae Cho - Consul for AI, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco / Ministry of Science and ICT
- Kyeyeon Kim - Co-Founder & CTO of GENIANS
The two talks look at AI from very different vantage points: one from the front line of attack and defense, the other from the level of companies, nations, and the international order. The panel brings them together.
Potential Discussion Topics
- Are open-weight models a security risk, a strategic asset, or both?
- Who should be responsible when an AI agent is hijacked: the model developer, the application builder, or the user?
- How does AI security become a question of national security?
- Is AI making attackers or defenders stronger, and does the answer differ between countries?
- Where can Korea build real strength in AI security and AI infrastructure?
- What should Korean founders and engineers in Silicon Valley be paying attention to right now?
Questions from the floor are highly encouraged!
AI Nexus forums are not one-way lectures. They are community conversations. Whether you are a security practitioner, AI builder, founder, investor, researcher, policy professional, or student, this panel is your chance to ask the hard and useful questions.
Lightning Talk 1 – The Agentic Shift: What the AI Agent Wave Means for Compute
Speaker – Minha Hwang - Principal Applied Scientist at Microsoft (speaking in a personal capacity)
AI agents have gone from research demos to everyday tools in a matter of months — and the market is racing to keep up. In this 5-minute lightning talk, Dr. Hwang maps the industry trends around AI agents as he sees them right now: the Cambrian explosion of agentic products, why agentic workloads are reshaping compute demand — including a renewed surge for CPUs alongside GPUs — and what it all signals for builders, investors, and strategists.
(Vendor-neutral by design: no single company’s product pitch, just the market dynamics.)
Lightning Talk 2 – The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine: What It Really Means
Speaker – Jongmin Sung - Knowledge Engineer @ Sailplane.ai / AI Systems Architect / Biotech and Drug Discovery Advisor and Scout
On October 5, Stanford’s Karl Deisseroth was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, for discoveries leading to optogenetics — the technology that makes it possible to switch the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain on and off with light.
But what does the prize actually recognize, and why does it matter beyond neuroscience? In this 4-minute lightning talk, Jongmin Sung unpacks what optogenetics really is, why controlling neurons with light was such a breakthrough, and what it signals for brain–machine interfaces, neurotechnology, and our understanding of intelligence itself.
Dinner & Networking
7:09pm - 8pm Food and beverage generously provided by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco.
After the talks, lightning talks, and panel discussion, we will continue the evening over dinner, where the conversation keeps going and many of the best AI Nexus moments happen.
Professional Connections
- Meet security practitioners, AI engineers, researchers, founders, investors, and policy professionals
- Connect with people working across cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and government
- Discover potential collaborators, advisors, customers, or partners
- Build relationships across the Korea-Silicon Valley technology corridor
Technical & Strategic Exchange
- Discuss how teams are actually securing LLM applications and agents in production
- Debate open weights versus closed models from both a security and a strategic perspective
- Share views on semiconductors, energy, and the infrastructure behind AI
- Talk through what Korea’s strategic options look like from Silicon Valley
Cultural Community
- Reconnect with AI Nexus friends from past forums
- Welcome new members interested in AI security and AI policy
- Strengthen the Korean professional network in Silicon Valley
Pro Tips for Networking Success
- Ask the uncomfortable question! “How would you attack this?” is often the most useful question anyone can ask about an AI system.
- Cross the technical-policy line! Engineers, talk to policy people. Policy people, talk to engineers. Both sides need the other.
- Make useful introductions! “You should meet…” is still one of the most powerful phrases in Silicon Valley.
- Follow up within 48 hours! The best conversations become real collaborations only when followed by action.
Why This Forum Matters
AI is advancing faster than our ability to secure it or govern it.
On one side, AI systems are becoming more capable, more autonomous, and more deeply embedded in businesses and governments. Agents are starting to act on our behalf. Open-weight models are spreading capabilities worldwide within days of release. On the other side, the foundations of AI, including chips, energy, data, and talent, are concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies and countries, and those actors are competing hard.
Three questions define this moment:
-
Who is attacking, and how? AI is lowering the cost of cyberattacks while creating entirely new categories of vulnerability. Understanding the threat is the first step toward building AI systems that deserve our trust.
-
Who holds power in the AI era? The competition over models, semiconductors, and energy is reshaping relationships between Big Tech and governments, and between allies and rivals.
-
Where does Korea stand, and what should it choose? Korea has world-class strengths in semiconductors, manufacturing, and digital infrastructure. The question is how to turn those strengths into strategic advantage amid a rapidly shifting global landscape.
Oct-2026 AI Nexus Forum will explore these questions through two talks, two lightning talks, a panel discussion with questions from the floor, and an evening of conversation over dinner.
With Thanks to the Consulate General
We are deeply grateful to the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco for generously sponsoring this forum and providing food and beverage for all attendees.
This forum continues a growing partnership between AI Nexus and the Consulate General. In July, the Consulate General sponsored our AI Nexus × KASC Joint Colloquium at Stanford, where Consul Kyeongrae Cho opened the evening with congratulatory remarks. We are honored that Consul Cho now joins us as a speaker, bringing a government perspective on AI that our community rarely gets to hear first-hand.
AI Nexus has always been built on ceaseless collaboration across academia, industry, government, and community. Partnerships like this one strengthen our role as a bridge institution connecting Korea and Silicon Valley, and bring our community closer to the conversations shaping Korea’s AI strategy.
Why You Should Attend
If you’re an AI/ML engineer or builder
- Learn how the LLM applications and agents you build can be attacked, and how to defend them
- Understand the new security realities of deploying AI in production
- See how geopolitics and industry competition shape the tools and models available to you
If you work in cybersecurity
- Explore how AI is changing both offense and defense
- Meet AI builders who need your expertise
- Discuss the security implications of open-weight models and autonomous agents
If you’re a founder or startup employee
- Understand the security expectations your customers will increasingly demand
- Learn how global AI competition creates both risks and opportunities for startups
- Explore Korea-Silicon Valley pathways with a clearer view of government priorities
If you’re an investor
- Sharpen your thesis on AI security, one of the fastest-growing areas in AI
- Understand how semiconductors, energy, and geopolitics shape the AI landscape
- Meet founders, engineers, and policy experts in the AI Nexus community
If you work in policy, government, or research
- Hear a first-hand government perspective on AI and the global power landscape
- Connect with practitioners who see these issues from inside Silicon Valley
- Explore how Korea can play to its strengths
If you’re part of the AI Nexus community
- Reconnect with friends from past forums
- Welcome new members interested in AI security and AI policy
- Take part in a conversation that will shape how we all build and govern AI
Target Audience
Everyone who is or wants to be part of the AI Nexus community!
- Current AI Nexus members and past forum attendees
- AI/ML engineers, researchers, and builders
- Cybersecurity professionals
- Founders and startup employees
- Investors and business leaders
- Semiconductor, infrastructure, and energy professionals
- Policy, government, and international affairs professionals
- Students and early-career professionals interested in AI security or AI policy
- Anyone navigating the Korea-Silicon Valley innovation corridor
Special invitation to:
- Security professionals curious about AI
- AI builders who want to ship secure systems
- Anyone interested in Korea’s strategic position in the global AI race
We will see you all there!
Best regards,
AI Nexus Committee
We extend our deepest gratitude to the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco for generously sponsoring this forum and providing food and beverage, and to Consul Kyeongrae Cho for sharing his perspective with our community.