South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT will build a digital safety system that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twin technology to predict and prevent risks in daily life.

On Monday, the ministry and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) said they will accept applications until March 10 for the "AI-based digital twin leadership in safety management" programme. The ministry prepared the programme to introduce the use of AI and digital twins domestically in line with a global trend of using them for typhoon prediction and flood forecasting.

Eligible applicants are consortiums made up of service developers that have AI and digital twin technology and local governments or public institutions that will introduce it in the field. The government will select a total of 6 tasks, 2 each in 3 fields: disease safety, daily-life safety and industrial safety. It will provide about 900 million won in funding per task.

Selected consortiums must analyse safety issues at demand-side institutions. Based on the analysis, they must develop a safety management service capable of simulation and complete field demonstrations by the end of this year. Examples include predicting infectious disease transmission routes, forecasting the occurrence and spread of red tide and green algae blooms, and simulating the spread of harmful gases. They must also prepare an operating plan for the next 3 years so the service can be maintained stably after the programme ends.

A programme briefing will be held at 2 p.m. on Feb. 11 at the LW Convention Center in Seoul. Detailed application guidelines and submission methods can be found on the NIA website.

Lee Do-gyu (이도규), director general for information and communications policy at the ministry, said: "Through this programme, we will accelerate AX in safety management sites and make concrete a digital safety model that people can feel." He added: "We hope companies with a range of technological capabilities will participate and lay a technological foundation that strengthens public safety."