The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) has been designated as an "AI Ethics Compliance Agency," becoming the first public institution to receive such recognition.
KOTEC announced Tuesday that it signed a "business agreement for leading trusted public artificial intelligence transformation (AX)" with the National Information Society Agency (NIA) at NIA's headquarters.
The agreement was pursued under the Framework Act on Artificial Intelligence, which took effect in January, to preemptively establish an AI ethics implementation framework and to spread a trust-based AI utilization culture to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and venture firms. As a technology finance specialist institution under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, KOTEC has developed and operated its own AI ethics standards since 2024.
Under the agreement, the two sides will jointly pursue AI ethics education and consulting support for SMEs and venture firms, compliance with AI ethics guidelines, establishment of AI adoption processes, and AI ethics training for executives and staff.
"By linking with NIA's expertise in AI ethics policy and education, we plan to systematically manage key risk factors that may arise during AI utilization, including bias, personal information protection, explainability, and accountability, and further strengthen our internal AI ethics compliance foundation," a KOTEC official said. "Through this, we plan to establish model cases for public sector AX as an 'AI Ethics Compliance Agency.'"
KOTEC has been strengthening its AX support this year. On October 27, the corporation released the first analysis results of the "AX Innovation Index," the first numerical measurement of AI transformation levels among domestic SMEs and venture firms, and began designing effective AX support policies.
The AX Innovation Index analysis on SMEs and venture firms was conducted jointly by KOTEC, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Korea Venture Business Association, which administered self-assessments to approximately 38,000 venture firms and analyzed the responses.
On the same day, KOTEC held the "Next-Generation Project Performance Report & ICT Future Vision Declaration Ceremony," officially declaring its leap into a digital policy finance institution based on AI transformation (AX). The event was organized to share the results of building next-generation information systems and to present the transition to an AX-based digital policy finance framework and mid- to long-term implementation strategies.
