Interior ministry says AI Government Lab registers 405 projects

The interior ministry said Wednesday its AI Government Lab had registered 405 experimental projects in just over a month, as civil servants used AI coding tools to develop and test solutions for workplace needs.

The pilot, operating since July 3, has drawn more than 1,000 subscribers to the public GitLab repository.

The ministry said the model relies on frontline civil servants with direct knowledge of their work to build, test and improve smaller functions rather than on large IT projects centered on professional developers.

Of the 405 projects, 189 have been published in the repository for other civil servants to inspect, exchange views on and use for follow-on development. Participation spans central ministries and local governments, from managers to junior officials. Among the participants, Health Ministry director Park Jeong-hwan is pursuing 49 projects and National Radio Research Agency researcher Kim Dong-hoon is pursuing 26.

Projects include a knowledge-management system that standardizes departmental reports and meeting minutes and uses AI to classify and summarize them for searches and report drafts. Another records computer-screen, keyboard and mouse inputs to automate repetitive data entry and system inquiries.

Other tools include OnAI Work, which creates officials' report drafts from natural-language descriptions; a Korean-language adviser that checks writing against language standards and usage; and an intelligent memo application that automatically sorts notes and manages tasks.

"The AI Government Lab's greatest achievement is that officials who know the field best have begun defining problems and creating solutions themselves, regardless of their affiliation or rank," Hwang Gyu-cheol, head of the ministry's AI Government Office, said.

The ministry plans guidance on security, quality and deliverable management, and to help validated projects operate on internal government networks or develop into public-facing services or services shared by government agencies.