South Korea's AI Basic Act took effect on 22 January 2026. It requires notice when a product uses generative or high-impact AI, labels on AI-generated output, safety steps for very large models, and extra duties for AI used in areas such as health, hiring and credit decisions. Fines are capped at 30 million won, and the science ministry said it would defer investigations and fines for at least one year.
01What is South Korea's AI Basic Act?
The law's official English title is "Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Creation of a Foundation for Trust". It was promulgated as Act No. 20676 on 21 January 2025 and entered into force one year later, according to the English text in the Korea Legislation Research Institute database. The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) says the Act and its Enforcement Decree came into force on 22 January 2026 (MSIT release).
MSIT's overview says the National Assembly passed the Act on 26 December 2024 and describes it as pairing industry support, such as research, data and AI clusters, with duties on transparency and safety. This page is general information, not legal advice. A company working in Korea should ask a Korean lawyer or MSIT.
02Which AI counts as high-impact?
The Act defines high-impact AI as a system that could seriously affect or endanger human life, physical safety or fundamental rights, and that is used in listed areas (Article 2). The list includes energy supply, drinking water production, health care, medical devices, nuclear materials, biometric analysis for criminal investigation, decisions with significant effects on rights such as hiring and loan screening, transport, and decisions by state bodies.
MSIT's announcement of the decree says an AI system is excluded when a human is involved in the final decision. Under Article 33 of the Act, a company must check in advance whether its AI is high-impact and may ask MSIT to confirm.
03What must companies do?
- Tell users (Article 31). Anyone offering a product or service that uses high-impact or generative AI must tell users in advance. Generative AI output must be marked, and realistic synthetic sound, images or video must be labelled in a way users can easily see. MSIT's transparency guidelines add that content which is downloaded or shared needs a human-recognisable mark, or machine-readable metadata after a text or voice notice.
- Safety for very large models (Article 32). Operators of systems trained with compute above a threshold set by decree must assess and reduce risks over the AI lifecycle, build a way to monitor incidents and report the results to the ministry. MSIT's legislative notice put that threshold at 10^26 floating point operations.
- High-impact duties (Article 34). Operators must run risk management, explain results and main criteria where technically feasible, protect users, keep human oversight and keep documents proving what they did.
- Impact assessment (Article 35). Operators should try to assess the effect on fundamental rights in advance.
- Domestic representative (Article 36). Foreign operators that meet user or revenue criteria set by decree must name a representative in Korea.
04What are the fines, and what is the grace period?
Article 43 caps administrative fines at 30 million won. They apply to failing to give the notice under Article 31(1), failing to name a domestic representative, and ignoring an order to stop or fix a violation. The ministry may investigate under Article 40 and order a violation to be corrected.
MSIT says it will grant a grace period of at least one year, during which fact-finding investigations and penalties are deferred. It expects to step in only in exceptional cases such as loss of life, human-rights violations or other serious social harm (MSIT release). The duties apply already, and MSIT offered a support desk for confidential questions.
The earliest the grace period can end is 22 January 2027, and MSIT has not said the exact length. We found no official notice of an extension as of 24 October 2026.
05What else did the decree notice and guidelines settle?
The draft decree notice, open for comment from 12 November to 22 December 2025, also covered institutions. It described an AI Safety Institute and an AI Policy Center. It said that when a company already meets duties under a sector law, such as the Digital Medical Products Act, the matching high-impact duties under the Basic Act are treated as met (notice).
MSIT published its transparency guidelines on 22 January 2026 and said it plans to fund AI testing, certification and impact assessments after the Act takes effect. We found no newer MSIT notice on the grace period as of 24 October 2026.
?What is not known
- How long the grace period will run beyond one year, and whether MSIT will change it.
- How MSIT will treat borderline cases, such as whether a human in the loop takes a system out of the high-impact group.
- Whether the law will be amended again. It was amended on 20 January 2026, just before it took effect.
QQuestions people ask
Does the AI Basic Act apply to foreign companies?
It can. The MSIT transparency guidelines say they cover international companies serving users in Korea, and Article 36 requires a Korean representative from foreign operators that meet the criteria.
Does the grace period mean the duties are not in force?
No. The duties apply from 22 January 2026. The grace period defers investigations and fines, not the duties themselves.
Last checked October 24, 2026. Rules and settings change, so open the source to see the current version.
- South Korea's AI Basic Act, English text Korea Legislation Research Institute (elaw.klri.re.kr) Official English text; used for definitions, duties and fines.
- The AI Basic Act Comes into Force Ministry of Science and ICT Release on the effective date, decree and grace period.
- Legislative notice for the Enforcement Decree Ministry of Science and ICT Draft decree notice; used for the compute threshold.
- Guidelines on Ensuring AI Transparency Ministry of Science and ICT Guidance on notices and labels.
- Korea's AI Basic Act overview Ministry of Science and ICT Ministry overview of the Act and its purpose.
General information, not legal, medical, financial or investment advice. We are not affiliated with any company, agency or standards body named here. See our editorial policy and corrections, or tell us about a mistake at [email protected].