"Civic Convenience Up, Unnecessary Tasks Down... Seoul City Innovates Administration with AI"

Automation of Simple and Repetitive Tasks Using Generative AI
AI Utilization in Welfare, Safety, and Civil Complaints
206.4 Billion KRW Investment Planned by 2026

Seoul City is pursuing administrative innovation by introducing artificial intelligence (AI) across various administrative areas such as transportation and welfare. The city plans to invest 206.4 billion KRW to enable AI to play a multifaceted role, enhancing citizen convenience and reducing unnecessary administrative tasks for public officials.

On the 2nd, Seoul City announced the "Seoul City AI Administration Promotion Plan," which includes these details. As the first AI activation strategy at the local government level, the goal is to establish Seoul as the world’s most attractive AI city.

This promotion plan is based on three main strategies: ▲ Establishing a trusted AI administrative foundation ▲ Creating an AI usage environment ▲ Accelerating AI administrative innovation. A total of 206.4 billion KRW will be intensively deployed over three years until 2026, with 55 billion KRW allocated this year.

First, to establish a foundation for providing AI administrative services, the city will operate a city-level control tower (Digital Policy Officer) and designate the Seoul Digital Foundation (tentative name) as an AI Technology Support Center, a specialized AI institution. Ethical guidelines and safety guides that generative AI users must autonomously follow will also be prepared.

Alongside this, an environment will be created for public officials to actively utilize AI in their work. This year, 'Generative AI Utilization Work Productivity Improvement Training' will be conducted for 1,300 public officials, more than double the number of participants compared to last year. Additionally, special lectures on the latest AI technologies and issues will be held by inviting generative AI company practitioners and experts.

Furthermore, the quality of ongoing AI-related projects will be improved and innovated to enhance citizen convenience and policy efficiency. Currently, the city is implementing 38 AI-based projects, including 'Walking with the Vulnerable' and 'Establishing a Citizen Safety Net.'

The city will expand the "Smart Check-in Service," where AI regularly calls and monitors socially isolated households such as elderly people living alone by detecting their movements. By monitoring electricity usage, communication data, and mobile phone usage, the system can detect situations early and enable emergency dispatch. An AI-based "119 Integrated Situation Management System" that analyzes emergency call voices to assess urgency and risk signs is also planned.

Citizen-tailored services using AI, such as information search and civil complaint consultation, will also be expanded. A "Seoul Public Data Chatbot" utilizing about 6,000 types of public data based on generative AI will be built. Additionally, the "120 Smart AI Consultation Center" will be established to enhance citizen convenience, along with the expansion of a 13-language "Real-time Simultaneous Conversation Subway Usage System" to assist subway use without language barriers, and a generative multilingual chatbot for Seoul tourism.

In terms of safety net creation, by 2026, all CCTVs installed in safety-vulnerable areas will be converted to intelligent systems, and an "AI-based Wildfire Monitoring System" project will be promoted to enable early detection and initial response to wildfires using drones and thermal imaging CCTVs. Intelligent CCTVs will detect and notify abnormal signs such as falls and violence.

Moreover, as part of work method innovation, Seoul plans to develop its own generative AI model to apply automation to simple repetitive tasks. This can be used to automatically distribute Seoul Talk field complaints to autonomous districts or automatically collect infectious disease surveillance data.

Park Jin-young, Seoul City’s Digital Policy Officer, said, "We are determined to make 2024 the inaugural year for AI administrative services, enhancing administrative efficiency and making citizens’ daily lives more convenient in line with rapidly advancing AI technology and social changes. Successfully operating AI administrative services will also be expanded to other local governments and the private sector so that more people can enjoy convenience and benefits."

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