The Korean government announced the "AI Regulatory Rationalization Roadmap"
On November 27, 2025, the Korean government announced the "New Industry Regulatory Rationalization Roadmap No. 1 (AI Sector)". This initiative aims to dismantle regulatory barriers that hinder technological advancement and remove obstacles impeding corporate innovation in the field of artificial intelligence. The roadmap incorporates opinions from AI-related associations, enterprises, research institutions, experts, and 25 relevant ministries. Based on the AI industry value chain, it divides regulatory optimization into four core domains and formulates a total of 67 key tasks.
- Technology Development: The focus is on resolving legal uncertainties surrounding data usage and intellectual property rights. Although Korea's Copyright Act permits "fair use," ambiguity persists regarding its applicability to AI training. Key tasks include clarifying judgment criteria for using copyrighted data in AI learning, expanding the release of high-value public data suitable for AI applications, and establishing standards for rights attribution of AI-generated outputs (such as patents and designs).
- Service Application: The objective is to eliminate barriers to the widespread adoption of AI services. This includes expanding autonomous driving pilot zones from routes to entire city scales. It also involves relaxing safety standards and shortening certification timelines to accelerate the commercialization of parking robots and outdoor mobile robots—for instance, reducing the safety certification items for outdoor mobile robots from 16 to 8 and halving the review period from 60 days to 30 days.
- Infrastructure: Emphasis is placed on alleviating the burdens associated with data center construction and operation. For specialized spaces such as data centers—where external access is strictly controlled—rigid spatial design obligations are rationalized to reduce unnecessary operational costs. Policies are also introduced to establish consultation mechanisms for addressing data center power supply issues.
- Trust and Safety Norms: The aim is to build a secure and reliable environment for AI applications. Primary efforts involve defining AI systems with significant impact on life, physical safety, or fundamental rights (such as recruitment AI) and clarifying the scope of corporate responsibilities. Guidelines are developed for specific domains like AI recruitment to prevent bias and protect rights. The government will propose clear judgment criteria—for example, guidelines in the recruitment sector that set usage standards and risk management plans for AI recruitment systems to prevent hiring bias and safeguard job applicants' interests.
These four core domains collectively form the blueprint for Korea's regulatory reform to enhance AI industry competitiveness while ensuring technological safety. The government will continue close collaboration with enterprises to prevent regulations from stifling industrial development. Going forward, as technological paradigms evolve, new regulatory needs will be proactively identified and addressed. The goal is to construct a regulatory environment that is both flexible and secure amid the rapid advancement of technology.