The establishment of a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) development organization within the government has crossed the ninth-ridge line by securing a legal basis.
According to the government on August 4, the “Regulations on the Establishment and Operation of the Public AI Service Innovation Promotion Group,” which was legislatively noticed by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) on July 3, passed the review by the Ministry of Government Legislation and received approval from the Prime Minister. The regulation secured immediate legal effect as it was issued as a Prime Minister's Directive at the end of last month.
The purpose is to establish a government organization for AI service development as a “Korean-style GDS,” benchmarking the “Government Digital Service (GDS),” a dedicated organization for digital services in the UK government.
The organization name, which was initially reviewed as “Public AI Service Promotion TF (tentative name),” was confirmed as the “Public AI Service Innovation Promotion Group (hereinafter referred to as the Promotion Group).” The Promotion Group will be established within the MSIT and will encompass pan-governmental AI service development. It will carry out related tasks such as the design, development, verification, and advanced refinement of government AI adoption and transformation services, as well as the improvement of user experience.
As President Lee Jae-myung issued a clear instruction at the Cabinet meeting in June to “introduce AI to overall government administrative tasks right now,” speedy operations are expected.
The Promotion Group will directly lead responses to urgent AX (AI transformation) demands within the government and the development of AI services. It will undertake the design, development, verification, and advanced refinement of AI adoption and AX services, as well as the improvement of user experience (UX). It must also secure and optimize the infrastructure necessary for the development and operation of government AI projects, while establishing infrastructure operation and security strategies.
The head of the Promotion Group will be appointed through an open position contest for private sector experts. It is reported that the ideal candidate sought is a heavyweight expert with experience in government and public AI services as well as software (SW) projects, and with expertise spanning planning, development, and operations. Team leaders and team members will be filled by hiring up to 100 private developers as term-based civil servants.
As the legal basis has been prepared through this directive enactment, the MSIT will full-scale carry out follow-up work. It is known that the Promotion Group will be launched as early as September.
A software industry official emphasized, “We hope this will serve as an opportunity for the government to solve structural ills that existing public SW projects have, such as the expansion of unreasonable task orders and insufficient budgets, through its own experience of operating a development organization.”
