South Korea is leading the global cultural market with K-pop, K-dramas, K-games, and K-webtoons. However, AI is rewriting the rules of the cultural industry.
We are entering an era where AI creates videos, composes music, designs travel itineraries, and translates content into multiple languages in real time.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Hwi-young, a platform expert who has served as CEO of Naver, Interpark Triple, and Nolu Universe, presented a vision upon taking office: "We will innovate the content industry ecosystem by combining the creativity of culture with AI technology."
His plan aims to make South Korea the world's leading AI cultural powerhouse through innovations in AI-based content creation and distribution, the digital transformation of the tourism industry, and the opening of cultural data.
The question is clear.
Can South Korea open a new century of K-Culture through AI?
AI is transforming the content industry
AI is now a new creative tool in the cultural industry.
Its use in video production, music composition, webtoon creation, and game development is rapidly expanding.
In his inaugural speech, Minister Choi announced plans to establish strategies for innovation in AI-based content creation and distribution.
This means utilizing AI not just as a production assistant but as a core infrastructure to enhance the global competitiveness of K-content.
In the AI era, the key to competitiveness lies not in producing more content but in spreading it faster and more globally.
The AI tourism revolution creates new growth engines
Minister Choi's strongest area is tourism platforms.
Drawing on his experience in growing digital tourism platforms in the private sector, he is pushing for the AI transformation of the tourism industry as a key policy.
The government is expanding AI agent-based tourism services, tourism R&D, and tourism plus tech projects to build a new tourism ecosystem supported by AI, from trip preparation to booking, travel, and consumption.
AI is also enhancing services tailored to local tourism and foreign visitors.
The future of tourism lies not in attractions but in experiences.
AI is ushering in an era of personalized tourism, designing unique trips for each individual.
Cultural data becomes an asset for the AI industry
AI grows by consuming data.
This is also true in the cultural sector.
The cultural assets accumulated by South Korea, including the Korean language, traditional culture, Korean music, cultural heritage, performances, and art, can become new national assets in the AI era.
Minister Choi has proposed actively opening cultural data and expanding the foundation for AI learning to support private companies and startups in developing new services.
Cultural data is not just a record; it is a source for creating future content.
Creators must be protected even in the AI era
As AI assists in creation, the rights of creators become even more important.
Copyright issues and fair use during the AI learning process, as well as creator compensation systems, are core challenges the cultural industry must address.
Minister Choi has stated that the development of the AI industry and the protection of creator rights must go hand in hand.
It is crucial to establish systems and policies that expand the potential of creators rather than replace them with AI.
AI and creation should be in a cooperative relationship, not a competitive one.
Korean-style AI expands K-Culture globally
Generative AI creates content based on learned culture and language.
Minister Choi has indicated plans to strengthen the foundation of Korean cultural data so that AI can properly understand Korea's history, culture, language, and traditions.
The deeper Korean culture is learned by AI, the greater the influence of K-content in the global market.
Cultural sovereignty is now also a matter of the competitiveness of AI learning data.
Will platform experience lead to innovation in cultural administration?
Minister Choi Hwi-young has a rare background as a journalist and CEO of platform companies.
His accumulated digital platform experience from leading Naver and tourism platforms can provide a new perspective for cultural administration.
The challenge ahead will be to move beyond managing culture, tourism, and sports separately and to build a unified cultural ecosystem based on AI and platforms.
Cultural policy in the AI era must evolve from support policies to ecosystem policies.
Minister Choi Hwi-young's AI strategy connects content, tourism, and cultural data.
AI content creation, smart tourism, cultural data openness, and innovation in the creative ecosystem all aim toward one goal.
To make South Korea the world's leading AI cultural powerhouse.
K-Culture has already amazed the world.
Now, with the addition of AI, South Korea's cultural industry is poised for another leap forward.
Culture is South Korea's most powerful soft power.
AI can become a new engine to expand that soft power more rapidly across the globe.
: Minister Choi Hwi-young:Minister Choi Hwi-young is a digital platform expert who has served as a reporter for Yonhap News and YTN, as well as CEO of Naver, NHN Business Platform, Interpark Triple, and co-CEO of Nolu Universe.
He was appointed Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism based on his successful experience in leading content and tourism platforms in the private sector, and he has outlined key policy directions focused on innovation in AI-based content creation and distribution, the digital transformation of the tourism industry, and the expanded use of cultural data.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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