South Korea's national AI safety research institute, established under the Ministry of Science and ICT in November 2024 to evaluate AI risks and develop safety frameworks and technologies.
South Korea's national AI safety research institute, established under the Ministry of Science and ICT in November 2024 to evaluate AI risks and develop safety frameworks and technologies.
People
Updated 05/18/26Director
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $8,700,000
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- -
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26The AI Safety Institute (AISI) of South Korea was officially launched on November 27, 2024, at the Pangyo Global R&D Center in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province. It was established as a subsidiary organization under the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and operates under the oversight of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT). The institute was created in direct response to the AI Seoul Summit held in May 2024, where South Korea joined nine other nations and the European Union in committing to a network of international AI safety institutes. The institute is directed by Kim Myung-joo (Kim Myuhng-Joo), an information security professor at Seoul Women's University who brings over 30 years of expertise in security and digital ethics. She previously founded the Right AI with Security and Ethics Research Center (RAISE) in 2019 and introduced Korea's first AI ethics framework, the Seoul PACT (emphasizing Publicness, Accountability, Controllability, and Transparency). Her three-year term as director runs from November 12, 2024 to November 11, 2027. At launch, the institute had 12 staff members consisting of the director and personnel seconded from ETRI and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), with plans to grow to approximately 30 employees by end of 2025. The institute's annual budget is approximately 12 billion Korean won, comprising around 8 billion KRW for R&D (solution development) and 4 billion KRW for non-R&D operations including safety assessment indicators. The institute organized a 24-member Korea AI Safety Consortium at launch, including 13 industry partners (Naver, KT, Kakao, LG AI Research, SKT, Samsung Electronics, and others), 6 academic institutions (Seoul National University, KAIST, Korea University, Sungkyunkwan University, Soongsil University, and Yonsei University), and 5 research institutes (TTA, NIA, KISDI, IITP, and SPRi). The consortium discusses AI safety evaluation frameworks, upgrades global safety reports for Korean contexts, and facilitates joint research and expert exchanges. On the international front, Korea AISI is a member of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes comprising ten countries. Its international cooperation includes joint research on deepfakes, multilingual and multicultural AI testing, cybersecurity testing, and agentic AI safety. The institute has also collaborated with the U.S. State Department, including a workshop on AI security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The institute explicitly positions itself as a research and support hub rather than a regulatory body, aiming to help Korean AI companies minimize risk factors that could hinder their global competitiveness while advancing national AI safety governance.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26The Korea AISI believes that by systematically identifying, classifying, and evaluating AI risks at a national level, it can develop preemptive safety frameworks, evaluation tools, and policies that both protect the public and enable Korean AI companies to compete globally. By serving as a hub connecting government, industry, academia, and international partners, the institute can harmonize domestic safety standards with global norms, share knowledge through its consortium, and contribute to the international network of AI safety institutes. This coordinated approach — combining rigorous technical research on AI risks with policy guidance and international cooperation — is intended to ensure that advanced AI is developed and deployed safely in Korea and that Korea shapes global AI safety governance.
Grants Received– no grants recorded
Updated 05/18/26Projects– no linked projects
Updated 05/18/26Discussion
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.