The South Korean government moved to ease IT industry concerns over high-impact AI regulations ahead of the enforcement of the AI Basic Act on January 22, stating that "there will be no application cases other than unmanned autonomous driving."
The Ministry of Science and ICT held an "AI Basic Act Implementation Briefing" near Gwanghwamun in Seoul on Monday, announcing detailed application standards and corporate support measures for the law. Lee Jin-soo, Director General for AI Policy Planning at the ministry, said at the event that "for high-impact AI, we expect it to apply only to very high-level autonomous driving (level 4 or above), and there will be no other cases."
The ministry defines high-impact AI as "AI that significantly affects people's lives, physical safety, and protection of fundamental rights." The criteria include whether AI is used in 10 designated areas including energy, healthcare, nuclear power, criminal investigation, transportation, and education, as well as whether humans are involved in the final decision-making process. "High-impact AI must fall under one of the 10 critical categories while also meeting conditions such as non-involvement of humans," Lee said. Under current AI technology, virtually no cases are likely to be designated as high-impact AI.
The threshold for hyperscale AI operators subject to safety obligations has been set at models with training computation of 10^26 FLOPS or more, with design purpose and risk level also considered. Currently, almost no models domestically or internationally meet this standard and would face immediate regulation. The obligation to label AI-generated content applies to final service providers, including overseas big tech companies such as Google and OpenAI.
The ministry said it will prioritize industry promotion while minimizing obligations and regulations under the AI Basic Act. Fact-finding investigations will only be conducted during the regulatory grace period for cases that cause social problems such as loss of life or human rights violations, or national damage. An "AI Basic Act Support Desk" staffed by agencies and experts involved in drafting subordinate legislation will provide customized consulting and case studies for SMEs and startups. "For our AI companies to expand globally, they need to follow international standards such as watermarks," Lee said. "We will provide various consulting services through the desk to help domestic companies strengthen their competitiveness."
According to the ministry, there are approximately 2,500 AI companies in Korea, of which about 1,800 are estimated to be subject to the AI Basic Act. Kim Kyung-man, Director General of AI Policy, said the ministry will "pursue revisions in parallel for stable implementation of the law and continue discussions with industry and civic groups."
