SK Group Chair to Lecture on AI and Capitalism on EBS Alongside Nobel Laureates

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (최태원) will appear as a lecturer on EBS’s flagship educational series The Great Lesson Season 6, premiering October 12, 2026 — the first time a major Korean conglomerate head has joined the lineup alongside five Nobel laureates.

What happened

EBS (Korea’s public educational broadcaster) announced the Season 6 lineup for The Great Lesson (위대한 수업, Great Minds) at a press event in Seoul on September 8. The show, which began in 2021, invites globally prominent academics and public figures to deliver lecture-style episodes. Season 6 will feature a record 50 lecturers — up from just 11 in Season 5 — and for the first time includes Korean domestic scholars alongside international guests.

Chairman Chey, who also chairs the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI — the country’s largest business lobby), will lecture on the theme “AI, New Capitalism, and Youth.” Other Korean participants include Seoul National University Distinguished Professor Hyeon Taek-hwan and University of Chicago Distinguished Professor Kim Young-gi. International guests include Philippe Aghion (2025 Nobel Prize in Economics), chemist Omar Yaghi (Nobel Prize in Chemistry), former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and French actress-director Sophie Marceau. The season premieres at 11:45 p.m. on October 12, 2026.

Why Korea does it this way

EBS occupies a unique role in Korean public life — it is a state-funded broadcaster legally mandated to provide educational content from primary school through adult learning, and is partly financed by a levy bundled into household electricity bills. The Great Lesson was designed to give Korean audiences direct access to world-class academic discourse at a time when online lecture platforms (like Coursera and MasterClass) were surging globally. Including a chaebol (재벌 — a large family-controlled Korean conglomerate) chairman reflects the show’s Season 6 pivot toward applied economic themes, specifically AI’s impact on capitalism and employment.

What it means for you

This is a single television programming announcement with no direct mechanism affecting rent, loans, savings, or electricity bills. However, there are two narrow angles worth noting:

• Korea-watchers and investors: Chey’s chosen theme — “AI, New Capitalism, and Youth” — signals how SK Group’s leadership is publicly framing its AI and semiconductor pivot. SK Hynix (listed on KOSPI, Korea’s main stock exchange, ticker 000660) is a core supplier of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory — the specialist chips used in AI training hardware) to Nvidia. Chey’s public messaging on AI and capital reallocation may preview themes in SK’s upcoming investor communications. No financial advice implied — check SK Hynix’s disclosure filings directly.
• Expats and residents: EBS is freely available on Korean cable and IPTV packages. Season 6 premieres October 12 at 11:45 p.m. KST — accessible without subscription if you have a standard Korean TV package.

Watch next

• October 12, 2026: The Great Lesson Season 6 premiere on EBS at 11:45 p.m. KST — the actual content of Chey’s lecture on AI and new capitalism will be checkable on that date.
• Date not yet set — decided by SK Group: SK’s next major investor day or earnings call (SK Hynix reports quarterly results; check the KOSPI disclosure portal KIND at kind.krx.co.kr for the scheduled date) will show whether Chey’s AI-capitalism framing translates into capital expenditure commitments.

Source: The Kyunghyang Shinmun (경향신문)