The government has begun to listen to the public's diverse opinions on digital issues such as safe and reliable artificial intelligence.


The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) announced that it will begin full-scale social public discussion through the revamped Digital Public Forum (www.beingdigital.kr) starting on the 12th.

On May 21, the Ministry of Science and ICT reported the ‘New Digital Order Establishment Promotion Plan’ at the 22nd State Council Meeting as a pan-ministerial plan to implement President Yoon Seok-yeol’s digital vision, the ‘Digital Bill of Rights’, into specific policies.

This promotion plan contains 20 policy tasks to resolve digital issues based on the philosophy of the ‘Digital Bill of Rights’ and the five principles (freedom, fairness, safety, innovation, and solidarity).

Among the 20 policy tasks, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the relevant ministries will actively promote social consensus in collaboration with each other for key tasks that are of great public interest or have high ripple effects and urgency to create visible results.

In particular, this year, we plan to focus on raising public awareness on the following topics: securing the safety, trust, and ethics of artificial intelligence (June to July), improving digital accessibility (August to September), responding to fake news using deepfakes (October to November), and ensuring stable implementation of non-face-to-face treatment (December to January 2025).
> First, the Ministry of Science and ICT will start a contest for policy ideas and voting on issues related to securing the safety, trust, and ethics of artificial intelligence at the Digital Public Forum (www.beingdigital.kr) for approximately two months from June 12 to July 31.

This intensive public discussion topic follows the discussions at the 'AI Seoul Summit' held on May 21st and 22nd, focusing on listening to the public's opinions to open an era of artificial intelligence that is safe, innovative, and inclusive.

Through issue voting, we plan to actively utilize the public's thoughts on the opportunities and threats of artificial intelligence technology, regulatory directions for safe and reliable artificial intelligence, and the government's artificial intelligence policy priorities to lead the global artificial intelligence standards in the future.

In addition, we will hold a policy idea contest on current issues such as resolving the gap in AI utilization, securing ethical awareness of AI developers, and preventing AI from violating personal rights, providing an opportunity for anyone to propose new policies.

Policy ideas are evaluated directly by experts from academia, industry, and policy-making ministries, and a national referendum is also held.

Excellent policy ideas will be awarded prize money (500,000 won for the best, 400,000 won for the excellent, and 100,000 won for the encouragement), and the representative policy idea of the year will be additionally selected and awarded with the Minister of Science and ICT Award at the end of the year.

We will continue to publicize this offline as well. A 'Digital In-Depth Issues Colloquium' will also be held in early July, where approximately 50 students and members of the public interested in AI safety, trust, and ethics will gather to discuss the topic with science influencers.

In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, will conduct a survey on the ‘digital education standards’, which are the ‘digital rights bill’ in the field of education, for about a week starting June 12.

The Ministry of Education plans to listen to the public's opinions on the core values that education in the digital age pursues and the basic principles that members must voluntarily adhere to, so that digital technology can be safely utilized while promoting innovation in the educational field, and to reflect them in the 'Digital Education Standards' to be announced at the end of June.

Vice Minister Kang Do-hyun said, “The intensive public discussion that we will be promoting starting this month will continue the ‘New Digital Order Establishment Promotion Plan’ and will contribute to increasing social acceptance in the digital era.” He added, “In particular, at the ‘AI Seoul Summit’ that successfully concluded last month, citizens from all over the world emphasized the safety of artificial intelligence technology, so we will actively listen to the opinions of our citizens and reflect them in our policies.”