Ministry of Land to Hold Corporate Roundtable on AI Cities

Discussion on Amendments to the Smart City Act and More

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it will hold a corporate roundtable on the 21st to promote the creation of AI Cities, which introduce artificial intelligence (AI) technology into urban operation and management.

This is the third meeting of the AI City Promotion Task Force, which was launched in September last year. The meeting is intended to review strategies and discuss legal and institutional support measures during the process of promoting this project in cooperation with companies. The government also plans to listen to the voices of private companies that develop and demonstrate AI technology on the ground, and to present practical regulatory improvement measures.

The government is in the process of selecting AI-specialized pilot cities, aiming to make its decision in June. It plans to select two cities. In addition, the government will provide step-by-step support from the planning stage for projects such as the Saemangeum AI Hydrogen City.

An AI City is a next-generation city that uses AI to analyze the vast amount of data collected in urban environments in order to predict and solve various urban issues—such as traffic, energy, and safety—in advance, and to provide personalized urban services to each citizen. The public sector will be responsible for building the AI infrastructure, while private companies will take on the development and demonstration of a variety of AI technologies.

President Lee Jae-myung delivers a congratulatory speech at the Saemangeum Robot, Hydrogen, and AI City Investment Agreement Ceremony held last February at the Gunsan Saemangeum Convention Center in Jeonbuk. Photo by Yonhap News

On this day, around 20 people are expected to attend the roundtable, including representatives from seven companies in the AI and data sectors—Hyundai Motor Group, Naver Cloud, Saltlux, Kakao Mobility, Nota AI, Dtonic, and NHN—as well as the private chair of the National Smart City Committee, other relevant experts, and officials from related organizations. The Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements will present the AI City implementation strategy and technology roadmap, while the Korea Legislation Research Institute will outline directions for amending the Smart City Act.

Jung Eekyung, policy chief at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "We will provide leading support so that citizens can experience AI services in their daily lives and so that AI technologies developed by our companies can be demonstrated and scaled up at the city level."

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