Rules / South Korea

Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of a Foundation for Trust (AI Basic Act)

In forceLawBinding인공지능 발전과 신뢰 기반 조성 등에 관한 기본법

Horizontal AI law with promotion measures plus obligations for 'high-impact' AI (risk management, explanations, user protection, human oversight, documentation), generative AI notice and labelling (deepfakes must be clearly recognisable), safety duties for high-compute models (≥10^26 FLOPs per decree), and domestic-representative duties for large foreign AI firms. An amendment (Act No. 21311, 20 Jan 2026) renamed the national committee the National AI Strategy Committee and expanded support measures, some effective 21 Jul 2026.

Why it matters

Foreign AI providers above the revenue/user thresholds must appoint a Korean representative and meet labelling and high-impact AI duties; MSIT has said fact-finding and fines will be deferred for at least one year.

What it requires

Risk classificationTransparency to usersLabelling AI contentImpact assessmentHuman oversightFrontier model safetyPenalties

Penalties

Administrative fine up to KRW 30 million (e.g. failure to give notice, appoint a domestic representative or comply with a corrective order).

SourceKorea Ministry of Government Legislation (law.go.kr): https://www.law.go.kr/법령/인공지능발전과신뢰기반조성등에관한기본법Secondary: https://shinkim.com/kor/media/newsletter/3114 Checked against the source on 4 Oct 2026. Original Act No. 20676 promulgated 21 Jan 2025. MSIT announced a grace period of at least one year (from 22 Jan 2026) for fact-finding/corrective orders and fines (per Shin & Kim); exact end date not fixed.

Cite this record

Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of a Foundation for Trust (AI Basic Act). National Assembly; Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT). Status: In force. wheresthe.ai, https://wheresthe.ai/rule/kr-ai-basic-act-2025/ (verified 4 Oct 2026).

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