Interior ministry unveils AI strategy for citizen-centered government

The interior ministry said Tuesday it will train 20,000 specialist public servants to develop and deploy artificial intelligence under a strategy to recast public services and policymaking around AI.

"The core of AI Democratic Government is not simply adopting AI technology, but realizing popular sovereignty, in which citizens become the true owners of state affairs through AI," Interior Minister Yoon Ho-joong said. "We will create changes and outcomes that citizens can tangibly experience in their lives."

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety presented its AI Democratic Government strategy to a Cabinet meeting, prioritizing more responsive public services, broader public participation in policy and an AI-led overhaul of civil-service work. It plans round-the-clock AI consultations in welfare, safety, taxes, agriculture, and food and drug safety. An upgraded AI National Secretary service would link public-service platforms to deliver personalized information.

The ministry also plans to centralize safety information through the National Safety 24 portal, offer support in 22 languages and use AI to analyze disaster situations and provide weather alerts and risk information.

A platform called Everyone's Plaza will use AI to summarize and analyze public views, compare policy proposals and support online deliberation. It would automatically classify and develop citizens' ideas, while legal and policy materials would be available for people preparing proposals or joining debates.

The OnAI work-management system will support legal reviews and report drafting, with rollout to 47 central ministries planned by December 2026. All public servants will complete AI education, and an AI Government Laboratory will help officials build workplace services.

The strategy calls for early release of 100 high-value public datasets and a cross-government data pipeline. It would introduce ethics standards and AI impact assessments covering effectiveness, privacy risks and responsibility, along with disaster-recovery standards tied to system importance and annual outage drills.