Science ministry wins cabinet approval for AI data law revisions

The science ministry said Tuesday that cabinet has approved revisions to South Korea's AI Framework Act and Data Industry Act, in a move to manage and distribute the government's growing stock of artificial intelligence training data under a single national system.

The amendments would require AI training data built or produced in the course of government projects to be linked to and offered through AI Hub, the state platform the ministry has run since 2018 to assemble and open up datasets that universities and small companies struggle to collect on their own. Companies and other project operators may still withhold data where they judge that linking or providing it would expose trade secrets, infringe personal information or copyright, or affect national security, according to grounds to be set by presidential decree. The science minister and the heads of relevant central government agencies could extend administrative, financial and technical support for the linking and provision of data, and would be required to take the steps needed to keep the quality of the shared datasets stable.

The second revision, to the Data Industry Act, addresses where data can be found rather than what it contains. It would allow the science minister to ask public institutions and private companies to link information about their data holdings to One-Window, a platform the ministry has operated since 2025 that connects public and private data platforms and points users to available sources. Public institutions would be obliged to comply unless they have a special reason not to, and the minister would gain a basis for providing the technical and financial support needed to widen those links.

Both amendments are due to take effect six months after promulgation, in April 2027.

"To raise our artificial intelligence competitiveness, it matters both to secure high-quality AI training data and to build a foundation on which the public can easily find and use the data they need," said Eom Yeol, head of the ministry's artificial intelligence policy office. "Through this legislative revision we will strengthen the basis for using national AI data and support the development of the AI industry."

The ministry has yet to publish the subordinate rules that will define which data must be linked, how quality will be checked and what counts as a valid ground for refusal.