Korea and U.S. Strengthen Cooperation on International Standards for AI and Quantum Technology

KATS and ANSI Co-host Standards Cooperation Forum
Regular Joint Proposals for International Standards and Expert Exchanges to Be Formalized

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on August 2 that, on July 31 (local time), it co-hosted the '6th Korea-U.S. Standards Cooperation Forum 2026' with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in Denver, United States, to discuss cooperative measures aimed at securing a lead in setting international standards in advanced technology sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technology.

The forum was attended by more than 60 experts from industry, academia, and research organizations representing both Korea and the U.S, including representatives from ANSI, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The participants shared the latest global standardization trends focusing on four core areas—AI, quantum technology, next-generation vehicles, and biotechnology—and discussed establishing collaborative frameworks to jointly propose and secure international standards.

Separately from the main forum, KATS also held bilateral meetings with NIST, ANSI, and SCC. Discussions with NIST centered around cooperation in the fields of AI and quantum technology, while the talks with SCC led to an agreement to broaden cooperation across key and emerging technologies, based on AI pre-standardization collaboration and the execution of a joint Work Plan.

The regular meeting with ANSI included sharing national standards policies of both countries, expanding private sector cooperation with U.S. Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), and strengthening joint efforts in international standardization bodies such as ISO and IEC. In particular, the two sides agreed to expand joint responses and expert exchanges in the areas of AI and quantum technology and to devise concrete action plans to translate these exchanges into tangible results.

KATS Administrator Kim Daeja stated, "We aim to pursue substantial cooperation to propose international standards and promote industrial adoption in critical advanced technologies such as AI and quantum technology, based on the trust built between Korea and U.S. national standardization agencies." He added, "We will formalize the implementation of action plans and expert exchanges with North American standards organizations to strengthen the execution needed for our technologies to be adopted as global standards and successfully enter overseas markets."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.