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Korea to allow companies to freely use government-owned works to train AI

Published: 28 Jan. 2026, 17:54

Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, far left, speaks during the fourth meeting of ministers overseeing science and technology at the government complex in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Jan. 28. [YONHAP]

Korea will let companies freely use government-owned works to train AI systems, authorities said on Wednesday, as part of a broader government push to expand data access and boost AI development.

Government officials announced the policy at a meeting of science and technology ministers chaired by Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, outlining measures to reduce legal uncertainty surrounding the use of public-sector data for AI training.

Public works held by the central government, local governments and public institutions are in demand as AI training data because of their scale and reliability. But licensing requirements, including mandatory attribution for individual works, have limited their use.

Under the new plan, the government will introduce a new license category that allows public works to be used without any conditions. The category will permit commercial use and modification and will not require attribution.

The government will also create a separate license category that allows public works to be used freely for AI training purposes even if their original license restricts commercial use or modification. Existing license categories will remain in place for other uses. As a pilot, the government last year allowed about 11 million public works under certain license types to be used for AI training by domestic companies developing AI foundation models under a state-backed project.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Science and ICT will consider incentives that reflect public institutions’ efforts to open public works in government performance evaluations. They also plan to revise the copyright law to make standardized public licenses mandatory for government-owned works.

Materials related to artificial intelligence services for the legal sector are displayed at the 2025 Law Expo Seoul at the aT Center in Seocho District, central Seoul, on Dec. 3, 2025. [YONHAP]

At the same meeting, the government said it would step up support for the use of AI across the public sector, referred to as AX, by expanding access to computing resources and data.

To speed up investment results, the government will set up a cross-government AX cooperation framework led by the group of science and technology ministers, linking projects across ministries with government resources, policy capacity and private-sector expertise.

Officials said they would establish a one-stop support system covering the full life cycle of public-sector AI projects, providing ministries with resources such as graphics processing units, AI models and datasets. The government will also offer technical consulting to help domestically developed AI foundation models enter public projects and support the development of specialized administrative AI services using a shared government platform.

The ministers also discussed the direction for a second mid- to long-term national research and development investment strategy covering the next five years, as well as follow-up measures to a governmentwide information security plan adopted last year, including steps to strengthen compensation for consumer harm.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHANG YOON-SEO [[email protected]]