Interior ministry launches AI pilot to unify national records search

The interior ministry said Friday it has begun a pilot verification of an artificial intelligence system designed to let citizens search national records and historical materials from multiple agencies in one place. The National Archives signed a memorandum of understanding with the Compilation Committee of Korean History at its Seongnam branch to jointly verify the feasibility of a nationwide integrated record utilization model.

Under the new framework, an AI agent will answer user queries by locating relevant documents held by different institutions while leaving each agency's data systems intact. Instead of gathering all records into a single repository, the service synthesizes search results and guides users directly to the source and original text locations maintained by the respective holders.

The pilot links records held by the National Archives dating from the establishment of the government in 1948 with modern historical materials managed by the compilation committee. This collaboration addresses the current difficulty citizens face in identifying which specific institution holds particular policy or historical data, often forcing them to visit multiple websites individually.

Both agencies are already developing AI services under the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Inter-ministerial Collaboration-based AI Diffusion' project and 'Public AX Project.' The National Archives is building a search, summary, and recommendation service for records, while the history committee is working on recognition, search, and translation tools for modern multi-character documents.

Following the verification phase, the interior ministry plans to expand the network to include various public and private institutions that hold records and knowledge resources. The agencies also agreed to strengthen cooperation in record evaluation, with the National Archives pushing to include experts from the history committee as ex-officio members on evaluation panels and seeking to codify this requirement in future revisions of the Public Records Management Act Enforcement Decree.

"This agreement is the first step toward expanding the AI capabilities accumulated by each agency into inter-agency record linkage," said Lee Yong-cheol, head of the National Archives. He added that the agencies would thoroughly conduct the verification to ensure citizens can conveniently access related records across institutional boundaries while respecting unique data systems.