Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Introduces 'AI Platform' for Analyzing International News Related to Korea

Last Year's Monitoring Count Increased by 447% Compared to 2012
GIST Establishes Foreign Media Big Data Analysis Platform
Performs Data Summarization, Keyword Extraction, and More

The government will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to communicate with the international community.

On the 15th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism signed a memorandum of understanding with Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) to establish an AI-based foreign news big data analysis platform by 2026. GIST is a national university institution equipped with a high-performance AI computing environment and national data center infrastructure. The former performs tasks at speeds more than one million times faster than general commercial computers, processing up to 6,000 trillion calculations per second.

Last month, GIST was selected as the partner institution for the memorandum of understanding through a review by a private consignment operation committee composed of experts in various fields. Going forward, dedicated research personnel will develop AI-based international news data analysis models and carry out operational tasks such as analysis and prediction. Yong Hoseong, Director of the International Cultural Promotion Policy Office at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, explained, "We plan to sequentially establish systems for data collection (2024), AI-utilized data analysis (2025), and analysis and information sharing services (2026) by investing 4.046 billion KRW."

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has monitored international news related to Korea for several decades. Especially since 2009, it has selected meaningful articles as reference materials for policy. However, over the past decade, the number of articles has surged, causing significant physical and human resource challenges. Last year, the volume of international news monitoring increased by 447% compared to 2012. As the national status and popularity of K-Culture have risen, interests have diversified. In the past, news related to North Korea dominated, but currently, popular music, Korean cuisine, dramas, movies, and traditional culture are the main topics.

To overcome various constraints, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has been researching an AI-based foreign news big data analysis platform since 2022. They also devised ways to utilize large-scale AI such as ChatGPT. GIST is concretizing this blueprint. AI will replace tasks previously handled by experts, such as summarizing news data, topic classification, keyword extraction, and news importance analysis.

A GIST official added, "We will provide various analytical tools including extensive information collection, content classification, topic extraction, topic keyword relationship analysis, and sentiment comparison analysis, enabling more accurate and detailed examination of international issues and Korea-related interests."

Director Yong stated, "This is the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s first case of digital transformation of its operations," and added, "It will be used not only for the core decision-making system of the International Cultural Promotion Policy Office but also to support decision-making by key government policymakers." He pledged, "We will ensure that this becomes a core system that helps Korea form a positive image and fulfill its role as a pivotal nation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.