The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-Ho hereafter ‘the Ministry’) has announced the official commencement of new projects under the ‘AI Diffusion Based on Interdepartmental Collaboration’ initiative in 2024 aimed at integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the public sector through collaboration with various government departments.

As part of its effort to promote everyday AI integration for all citizens the Ministry has been pushing the ‘AI Diffusion Based on Interdepartmental Collaboration’ project since 2022 to develop and demonstrate AI services applicable to various public sectors. This project aims to alleviate the workload of public services and enhance service reliability through AI ultimately benefiting the general public. Furthermore AI companies participating in the project can use their experience in the public sector as a reference to expand their services into other industries.

This year the project’s budget has been significantly increased (from 8 billion KRW in 2023 to 24 billion KRW in 2024) to support the development and demonstration of 10 new projects in addition to the ongoing ones. To achieve this the Ministry solicited project proposals from central administrative agencies (January 4 to February 2 2024) and subsequently invited proposals from AI service developers (March 18 to April 25 2024) with final selections made after thorough evaluation.

The new projects for 2024 span various public service sectors including veterans affairs environment transportation safety and employment. These projects will focus on technology development over the next three years. Through collaboration with each department data will be safely collected and processed in a secure environment (‘Safe Zone’) where AI services will be developed. In the final year the performance of these AI services will be enhanced through demonstrations in test beds provided by the actual demand institutions followed by application in real public sector settings.

Kim Kyung-Man Director of AI-Based Policy at the Ministry stated “As AI technology and performance rapidly evolve there is increasing interest in the impact of AI on all aspects of our lives.”

He emphasized “By proactively incorporating AI into high-impact public sectors we will continue our efforts to make AI a part of everyday life allowing citizens to experience its benefits firsthand. Additionally we will provide policy support to ensure that competitive domestic AI services can expand not only within the public sector but also into private and global markets.”