[Digital Today reporter Jin-ho Lee (이진호)] The Broadcasting, Media and Telecommunications Commission on Jan. 20 released an "AI Service Providers' Guide to Telecommunications-Related Laws on User Protection" that analyzes relevant statutes to ease legal uncertainty stemming from advances in AI technology.

It is the first guide that analyzes major user-protection provisions in the Telecommunications Business Act and the Information and Communications Network Act from the perspective of applying them to AI services, drawing out possible applicability and future improvement directions.

AI has had aspects in which it is unclear whether specific laws apply because service types and delivery methods vary. To improve the predictability of regulation for businesses, the commission prepared the guide through an expert group and external advice from March last year, with a research team comprising the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) and AI legal experts.

The guide reviewed user-protection provisions in currently provided AI services, focusing on prohibited acts, user protection and compensation clauses under the Telecommunications Business Act, and provisions on preventing the distribution of illegal and harmful information and on protecting children and adolescents under the Information and Communications Network Act.

According to the guide, AI service providers, as value-added telecommunications service providers, must not engage in actions that undermine user interests and in failures to disclose important matters, which are defined as prohibited acts under the Telecommunications Business Act.

It also closely examined the concept of "distribution" in the Information and Communications Network Act's provisions on preventing the spread of illegal and harmful information, and drew policy implications that related matters are important for AI services as well. The research team, however, assumed that the possibility of applying the law may differ depending on how AI services are used.

The guide also presented directions for improving user-protection policy for AI service providers. Based on the guide, the commission plans to provide businesses with stability in responding to regulation and to raise user trust in using services.