HWASEONG — The city of Hwaseong has confirmed Professor Sam Richards as the keynote speaker for the opening ceremony of MARS 2026, a global AI expo running for three days from Nov. 3 to 5 at Hall D of COEX in Seoul.
MARS 2026 is a global AI expo hosted by the city, Hwaseong said on the 14th. The event focuses on extending the direction of AI development beyond industrial competitiveness alone and into cities and the lives of residents. With AI now embedded across daily life in administration, transportation, welfare and safety, the central agenda goes beyond what the technology can do to ask how it will change citizens and communities.
By inviting Richards as keynote speaker, the city plans to highlight its vision of an "AI city for people." Rather than putting efficiency and performance first, the message the city intends to foreground is that AI should be used in ways that make residents' lives safer and more convenient.
Richards is a professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University in the United States and has conducted research on race, gender and culture for about 30 years. He also serves as a chair professor in the department of culture and content at Konkuk University. He has won an Emmy Award in the educational programming category and is known for demonstrating a deep understanding of Korean society and culture across various media outlets.
In the address, Richards is expected to examine how technological advances in the age of AI affect people, communities and urban society. He is likely to lay out issues that must be discussed alongside the spread of AI, including technological exclusion and social gaps, and to stress that AI should serve as a foundation connecting people rather than merely a tool for raising productivity.
The slogan for this year's MARS 2026 is "AI CITY IN ACTION." It carries the meaning that AI will not stop at future concepts or declarations but will be implemented as technology that actually works in residents' lives and on the ground in the city. The city plans to use the event to promote its approach to a hands-on AI city at home and abroad.
That direction aligns with "Happiness for All, a Greater Hwaseong," the governing value of the ninth popularly elected city administration. Both share the view that the ultimate purpose of advanced technology is to improve the life of each individual resident.
"It is meaningful to welcome Professor Sam Richards, a world-renowned scholar, as the keynote speaker for the MARS 2026 opening ceremony," Hwaseong Mayor Jung Myung-keun said. "This event will go beyond a place to compete over the excellence of AI technology and become a venue where we draw together a warm future city in which no resident is left behind."