Korea puts AI policy into phones, hospitals and patent files

South Korea's ministries used the first two days of October to move artificial-intelligence policy out of strategy documents and into phone bills, hospital wards and patent archives.

The most visible piece was diplomatic. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency opened the 12th Global ICT Leadership Forum in Seoul on Sept. 30, drawing senior delegates from Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Panama, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Nepal. Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myung told the room that the two sides should build "a new dimension of international digital order" and that Korea wanted to be "a digital partner growing together, not merely a donor."

Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon met Vietnamese Science and Technology Minister Vu Hai Quan on Oct. 1 to discuss follow-up work under an April framework that centres on the Korea-Vietnam Institute of Science and Technology. First Vice Minister Koo Hyuk-chae met Estonian Education and Research Minister Kristina Kallas the same day, with energy technology, quantum-resistant cryptography and AI on the agenda, and both sides agreeing to widen joint projects under Korea's associate membership of Horizon Europe.

Domestic industry measures ran in parallel. The science ministry briefed alternative mobile carriers on rules that would let operators with their own equipment enter the market, expand radio-wave fee cuts and raise customer-service standards, with legislative notices due in October. A wireless-power testbed opened at Kyungpook National University's Daegu campus, built to let companies test components for electric-vehicle and robot charging without constructing a full system.

The Health Ministry inspected a medical-AI testbed at Korea University Guro Hospital, where 21 small AI firms have been matched with 22 data-centred hospitals under a programme worth 4.8 billion won ($3.53 million) through December.

The opening of data may outlast the announcements. The Intellectual Property Office released about 9.61 million AI training records — patent summaries, chemistry and metals experiment tables, and trademark classification data — free through its KIPRISPlus service, taking its total open AI dataset to 22 categories and roughly 57 million records. Its director of intellectual property information, Chung Jae-hwan, said AI competitiveness depends on how easily good training data can be obtained, and that the office would keep releasing material small firms cannot assemble alone.

The Interior Ministry and the Personal Information Protection Commission opened registration for 200 citizens to debate AI and personal data on Nov. 1, and ran a local-assembly academy in Daejeon covering AI policy and regional innovation.