South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Broadcast Media Communications Commission are moving to jointly respond on artificial intelligence, media and digital regulation. The aim is to reduce policy gaps by removing barriers between agencies in the "big blur" era of collapsing industry boundaries.

The two ministries held a launch meeting for the "MSIT-Broadcast Media Communications Commission Policy Council" on Tuesday at the Science and Technology Advisory Council building in Seoul. It was co-chaired by Ryu Je-myeong (류제명), second vice minister at MSIT, and Ko Min-su (고민수), a standing commissioner at the Broadcast Media Communications Commission. As the first official cooperation channel with MSIT since the commission's launch, the two agencies will work together to carry out state tasks including "making the country that uses AI best" and "building a future-oriented digital and media ecosystem".

The two agencies will cooperate in 3 areas: AI, media and OTT, and digital regulation and user protection.

The core of AI cooperation is to link broadcast data built and managed by the commission to training homegrown AI foundation models. They decided to provide, for research and education purposes through MSIT's AI Hub, some monitoring data from the Broadcast Media Communications Review Committee and part of the "broadcast video AI training dataset" built by the commission last year. About 20 percent of the total dataset to be built will be released first in the AI Hub's secure zone.

As securing high-quality video data has emerged as a key task to strengthen large language model competitiveness, attention is on the commission's role in broadly securing broadcast data. An MSIT official said, "Broadcasters now also have a sense of crisis that the only way for media to survive is through AI and ICT technology innovation," adding, "Broadcasters' perception of data disclosure will also change."

In new media areas such as over-the-top (OTT) services and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST), the commission will participate in MSIT's "Global K-FAST Alliance". MSIT currently oversees platforms, while the commission oversees broadcast content.

They will also 추진 linked events. The commission will schedule its own program within the MSIT-hosted "Korea International Streaming Festival" this month, presenting screenings, investment attraction showcases and promotional booths. At the commission's "International OTT Forum" in November, it will run a program inviting winners of MSIT global awards.

In digital regulation, the focus will be on preventing overlapping regulation. MSIT currently handles ex-ante regulation of telecommunications, while the commission is in charge of ex-post regulation that includes market investigations. The two agencies will make a pre-coordination channel permanent. They will also jointly respond to new policy challenges raised by AI, such as the spread of false and manipulated information and personal data breaches.

The policy council will hold regular vice-minister-level meetings every half year. It plans to convene director-general-level working-level consultations as needed when issues arise.

Ko said, "Innovation and growth in industry alone are not enough," adding, "While protecting the values of the public nature, diversity and trust of media, the two agencies will work together to build an institutional foundation so the public can use AI and digital services with confidence."

Ryu said, "As this is a big blur era in which the boundaries among broadcasting, telecommunications, media and platforms are collapsing, the two ministries also need to move without barriers from the starting line," adding, "It is the mission of the times to ensure no one is excluded from AI benefits and to protect users from risks."