"I was bottom 1% for all subjects for K-12 years.
But I always won an award every year — the invention competition.
I always invented something new."
He hated school for 12 years in Korea. Every day was painful, but at home he would take things apart in his father's workshop and build something new. Bottom 1% in every subject, but won invention contests every year.
During a high school visit to a care home for people with disabilities, a message at the entrance changed his life:
"I have all my fingers and toes, and I can do so much more than just eat..." — From that moment, he began to see the pain and needs of the world. It changed the entire direction of his research at Stanford and led him to launch education projects around the globe.
"My parents didn't even know what grade I was in. They just left me alone." — That freedom became the seed of creativity.
"Why do you use technology?
To make a difference —
not for your own sake, but for all those around you."
A compass for being truly human in the age of AI
Compassion — Understanding others' pain and acting on it
Commitment — The strength to see things through
Communication — Meeting people where they are
Collaboration — Greater value together
Creativity — It starts with a question
Critical Thinking — Together with AI
Stanford d.school × Graduate School of Education A cross-listed course bringing together students from education, engineering, business, computer science, and humanities to co-design solutions to educational challenges with partner organizations worldwide.
Tackling real-world education challenges from Mexico, Ghana, Senegal, the Philippines, and LA through design thinking — putting into practice the philosophy that "technology is not innovation itself, but a tool for creating change."
📖 Read on Stanford Accelerator for Learning →
Stanford d.school classroom — Interdisciplinary teams explore educational challenges with partner organizations and prototype solutions. Photo: Andrew Brodhead
+ Massive Open Online Courses (Routledge, 2015) · Love to Learn
FG2G Keynote: Pedagogical Evolution — Empowering 21st-Century Learners (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2025)
Global HR Forum 2017 — 폴 김, 스탠퍼드대 교육대학원 부원장
"When I turned 50, I decided I got to do something different.— 실리콘밸리 야간 비행: Google, Apple, Stanford를 내려다보며
So I got myself a pilot license."
세계 오지의 교육 현장에 더 쉽게 다니기 위해 비행기 조종사 자격증을 취득.
"최고의 foundational question을 보내면 비행기 태워줄게" — 키노트마다 청중에게 던지는 도전.
"When you don't know whether you are working or playing — that's the good thing."
국가 AI 정책 자문위원 (2025–Present). 60만 명 대상 AI·창업 교육 프로그램 설계·운영.
북경 미래교육센터 자문 (2024–2025). AI 통합 교육 솔루션 R&D, Smart Farming·VR·Biotech 미래학습공간 설계.
동아시아 국가 교육 혁신 솔루션 평가·투자 권고 (2024–2025).
"How AI-tized is your company? What's your AI score — honestly?"
Important Conversations on the Future of AI — 글로벌 AI 전문가 포럼
"Generative AI is the great equalizer — the first technology with genuine potential to close the gap"
미 국무부 선정 풀브라이트 전문가 (2023). 말레이시아 Petronas — 국가 STEM 교육 전략 개발.
ADB 총재 자문위원 (2019–2022). $77.6B 규모 아시아·태평양 디지털 개발 전략.
자문위원·주주 (2010–2021). 글로벌 확장 전략 수립, 2021년 성공적 IPO. 추후 Coursera로 합병인수.
"AI is like ammonium nitrate.
It could be the greatest invention in human history —
or the most devastating weapon of mass destruction.
The difference is not technology. It's education.
That's why we must teach compassion before we teach code."