Science ministry awards 30 public-sector AI projects at first innovation contest

The science ministry said Wednesday that 30 public-sector artificial intelligence projects were selected as outstanding innovations at the first "2026 Public Institution AI Innovation Awards" in Seoul, a contest that drew 316 submissions from 105 institutions.

The event at Nuriggum Square in western Seoul was co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the finance ministry, and honored two grand prize winners: Korea Western Power's AI-operated gas turbine and Incheon International Airport's AI-based aviation safety management. Eight projects took top excellence awards, 10 received excellence awards and 10 more were named AI innovation award recipients.

Korea Western Power's "K-gas turbine," billed as the country's first gas turbine run by AI with robotic inspection, won the grand prize in the AI service demonstration and proof-of-concept category. The company expects about 2.1 billion won ($1.57 million) in annual economic benefits.

Incheon International Airport took the grand prize in the AI application category for replacing manual, human-led aviation safety management with a 24-hour AI prediction and detection system. The airport authority said the system preemptively blocks "invisible risks" throughout the aircraft takeoff and landing process.

Other winning projects were displayed at an "AI innovation showcase" at the venue. Korea Electric Power Corp. presented a service that uses AI to analyze the power consumption patterns of single-person households and detect anomalies to identify people at risk of dying alone, while the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corp. demonstrated a service that generates and identifies digital watermarks on products so consumers can verify genuine K-brand goods by photographing them with a smartphone.

"This event is deeply meaningful in that it is the first event held to showcase and share the various achievements of public institutions realizing services that people can feel and administrative efficiency as the agents of AI innovation," said Ryu Je-myung, the science ministry's second vice minister.

Ryu said the ministry will support the development of independent AI models, the expansion of AI computing infrastructure and the demonstration and spread of domestic neural processing units so that Korean AI technology is widely used in public settings. He added that the government will push policy support so that public institutions' bold challenges and AI innovation spread across the entire public sector.