AI Basic Act Likely Difficult to Pass in National Assembly
Budget Increase Next Year Also Not Easy
Minister of Science and ICT Yang Sang-im (right) is attending the Cabinet meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 3rd, reviewing documents. Photo by Jo Yong-jun
On the morning of the 4th at 8:30 AM, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced via a text message sent to the press corps that the scheduled external appointments of the Minister, Vice Minister, and the Head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters for the day were canceled.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Minister Yu Sang-im had a schedule in Seoul in the afternoon, and Ryu Gwang-jun, Head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, had a schedule in Changwon, Gyeongnam, but all were canceled.
Minister Yu convened an emergency executive meeting via video conference in Seoul that morning and led discussions on the current situation. It is known that this was to seek follow-up measures amid political turmoil, such as the emergency martial law declared by President Yoon Seok-yeol on the night of the 3rd being invalidated by a parliamentary vote.
During the meeting, Minister Yu urged executives to ensure that work proceeded without disruption and confirmed the stable operation of communication networks. It was also shared that aside from portal cafe services like Naver and Daum experiencing issues immediately after the proclamation of martial law, there were no significant communication disruptions.
Meanwhile, as the political situation rapidly cooled due to President Yoon's push for martial law, there is a high possibility of delays in handling pending issues related to the Ministry of Science and ICT, such as the AI Basic Act and next year's budget proposal. The National Assembly was expected to process the "Basic Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Establishment of a Trust-Based System (Alternative)" sometime next week.
The budget approval has also become uncertain. The National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee (STIBC) passed the Ministry of Science and ICT's budget for next year on the 20th of last month, increasing it by about 1 trillion won compared to the government proposal to support AI infrastructure construction. This budget included government-level GPU purchase funds.
The appointment of heads of related institutions under the Ministry of Science and ICT, such as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), government-funded research institute directors, and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning, is also likely to be delayed.
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