South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT launched an expert advisory panel on March 13 on "AI ethics principles" aimed at building a safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) society.

The AI ethics principles are norms designed to promote human-centred and responsible AI development and use, taking into account the positive and negative effects AI could have on society. Under the AI Basic Act, the ministry formed an advisory committee with the Korea Information Society Development Institute, drawing on various experts with specialised knowledge on AI ethics.

At the panel's launch ceremony held at Inspire Biz Center Seoul, Lee Jin-soo (이진수), the ministry's director general for AI policy planning, and the advisory members discussed the direction for pushing ahead with the drafting of the ethics principles and ways to broaden public discussion. The members agreed that South Korea needs new ethics principles after the ethics standards made in 2020. They also decided to coordinate the details of the principles through the operation of working groups going forward.

The ministry plans to prepare a draft of the ethics principles by mid-April through the expert advisory panel. It then plans to finalise the principles by June after collecting opinions from the general public, companies and relevant ministries and agencies.

Lee said, "Through the drafting of these ethics principles, we will communicate with all sectors of society so that South Korea can become a country that uses AI well."