A global summit hosted by South Korea and Britain adopted a declaration Tuesday on promoting safe, innovative and inclusive artificial intelligence (AI) to address challenges and opportunities associated with the fast-evolving technology.

The so-called "Seoul Declaration" was adopted during a virtual leaders' session of the AI Seoul Summit, hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The two-day event follows the inaugural global AI safety summit held in Britain last November, where 28 countries and the European Union adopted the Bletchley Declaration, the first global guidelines on AI safety.

"We recognize that Al safety, innovation, and inclusivity are inter-related goals and that it is important to encompass these priorities in international discussions on Al governance to address the broad spectrum of opportunities and challenges that the design, development, deployment, and use of Al presents and may present," the declaration said.

"We recognize the importance of interoperability between AI governance frameworks in line with a risk-based approach to maximize the benefits and address the broad range of risks from AI, to ensure the safe, secure, and trustworthy design, development, deployment, and use of Al," it added.

The leaders' session was attended by leaders from the Group of Seven countries -- the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- as well as Singapore and Australia, along with representatives from the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union.

It also brought together tech industry leaders, including Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and startup xAI, and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, as well as representatives from global companies, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Naver, South Korea's top portal operator.

On Wednesday, an in-person ministerial session will be held at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology to discuss action to strengthen AI safety and achieve sustainability and resilience. (Yonhap)