Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Hwi-young said Thursday that regulations are needed for AI-based publishing, commonly known as "click publishing."
At a plenary session of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, Rep. Kim Jae-won of the Rebuilding Korea Party pointed out that "there are no minimum legal deposit standards for AI auto-generated publications."
Minister Choi responded, "Books churned out by AI should be excluded from legal deposit, so we are strengthening related monitoring."
Legal deposit is a system requiring publishers to submit copies of new books to the National Library of Korea and the National Assembly Library within 30 days of publication. Compensation equivalent to the book's retail price is paid for deposited books. The issue is that while these libraries can reject specific books as ineligible for deposit, there are no explicit regulations or limits regarding AI.
"We are also pursuing institutional improvements to establish a legal basis for excluding AI publications from legal deposit," Minister Choi said. "We need comprehensive measures to proactively respond to AI and ensure it is actively utilized for growth in the culture and arts sector."
The Ministry also announced it has established a new Cultural AI Policy Division to oversee AI-related affairs and design comprehensive policies, including establishing the institutional status of AI-generated content.