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Published (non-binding, current)Non-binding · Guidelines / framework

Guideline for Determining High-Impact AI (Article 33(3) of the AI Basic Act)

고영향 인공지능 판단 가이드라인

Record KR-06

Issued by
Ministry of Science and ICT and National Information Society Agency (NIA)
Jurisdiction
South Korea
Level · region
National · East Asia
Published / adopted
2026-01-22
Last updated
2026-04-29
Language
Korean

Summary

Guidance under Article 33(3) of Korea's AI Basic Act, which lets the Minister of Science and ICT establish and disseminate guidelines on the criteria and examples of 'high-impact AI'. It sets a two-step test: whether the AI system is used in an area listed in Article 2(4), such as energy supply, drinking water, health care, medical devices, nuclear safety, analysis of biometric information for criminal investigation or arrest, hiring and loan screening, transport, public-service decisions or student assessment; and whether that use may significantly affect or endanger life, physical safety or fundamental rights. Area-by-area decision flows and examples follow.

Language

No English version of this instrument was found. The English title and the summary are the register's own, written from the sources below; for the exact wording use the Korean text.

Safety topics

risk-based classificationhuman oversightcritical infrastructureaccountability & liability

Status notes

Published on 22 January 2026, when the Act entered into force. NIA records revised uploads on 29 January 2026 (decision flows for criminal investigation and arrest), 13 February 2026 (health-care criteria and a non-applicable example) and 29 April 2026 (health-care decision flow); the file recorded here is the 29 April 2026 version (216 pages). Operators judge for themselves whether their AI is high-impact and may ask the Minister to confirm; the guideline says it is not legally binding, that the expert committee's advice on a request is non-binding and optional, and that the Minister's confirmation is an administrative view on which the courts have the final say. Annexes reproduce the Act (Act No. 20676), the draft Enforcement Decree and the request forms. MSIT's online form for confirmation requests asks operators to review the guideline first and refers them to an advice desk.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.nia.or.kr/common/board/Download.do?bcIdx=28987&cbIdx=99835&fileNo=27

Secondary source: https://www.msit.go.kr/user/ais/requestAi.do

Local copy

Archived. Last attempt 2026-10-18 07:41:26 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/KR-06/2026-10-12/official.pdf
Retrieved 2026-10-12 04:43:55 UTC
SHA-256 c67782a5b61bbcc4753925c6fea47dbca8a522d67c0966aa8ea32782a2da005c
Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/KR-06/2026-10-12/secondary.html
Retrieved 2026-10-12 04:44:01 UTC
SHA-256 7b013c6ade6ea42e8a677ec1a279f06ad1b2d2451fe6b82b1fe984200668516a

Verification

B
Another official source, such as an announcement by the issuer, confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · alternative-official-url-fetched
Refresh of 18 Oct 2026 under the rule that level A needs the instrument's own text or an official register. Stored and read: NIA's copy of the guideline (nia.or.kr, PDF, 216 pages, version of 29 April 2026, stored 12 Oct 2026 and unchanged when the archiver checked it on 18 Oct 2026; pages 1 to 6 have no text layer), MSIT's online form for high-impact AI confirmation requests (msit.go.kr, the record's secondary source, same dates) and NIA's notice of 22 January 2026 distributing the AI Basic Act guidelines, stored in this run. The guideline confirms the title (in its own FAQ), the Article 33(3) basis, the two-step test, the area table of Article 2(4), the examples, the confirmation procedure and its non-binding character. The cover image shows the English title 'Guidelines for Determining High-Impact AI Systems' and the logos of MSIT and NIA, but no date, and no page of the text dates the guideline. The publication date and the revisions of 29 January, 13 February and 29 April 2026 therefore rest on NIA's notice (its date, its revision notices and the file name 260429), an announcement that counts as alt-official, so the record is level B. The notice also says that the posted files are the current versions. The archiver flagged the notice for review because it barely mentions the guideline's title; it is the notice that distributes the guideline files.
Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 7 field(s) supported.

History

  1. 2026-10-18related: [{"id": "KR-02", "slug": "kr-ai-basic-act"}, {"id": "KR-03", "slug": "kr-ai-basi → [{"id": "KR-02", "slug": "kr-ai-basic-act"}, {"id": "KR-03", "slug": "kr-ai-basi — two-way link added: KR-04 link(s) to KR-062026-10-18-fix-related-links · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  2. 2026-10-18verification.level: A → B — level computed from the evidence by tools/pipeline.py2026-10-18-refresh-level-rule-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  3. 2026-10-14notes: First published with the Act's entry into force on 22 January 2026 after a draft → Published on 22 January 2026, when the Act entered into force. NIA records revis — Removed the September 2025 draft, which no stored file supports. Added what the guideline says about its legal force, the expert committee and the confirmation (pages 10 and 214). Named the advice desk without the KOSA attribution, which the stored MSIT page does not make.2026-10-14-refresh-translation-fixes · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  4. 2026-10-14summary: Guidance under Article 33(3) of Korea's AI Basic Act, which lets the Minister of → Guidance under Article 33(3) of Korea's AI Basic Act, which lets the Minister of — Corrected a mistranslation that widened the defined class: Article 2(4)(f), reproduced on page 20, is one area, the analysis and use of biometric information for criminal investigation or arrest, not separate 'biometric identification' and 'criminal investigation' areas. Completed the list of areas from the page 20 table (medical devices, transport, student assessment). Dropped 'weighing impact, severity, frequency and the domain's specifics', which are the factors the Minister weighs on a confirmation request (decree, page 9), not the guideline's own test. The self-assessment sentence moved to notes.2026-10-14-refresh-translation-fixes · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  5. 2026-10-14english_version: – → {"kind": "none found"} — No English version in the stored copies, and none found in a targeted search on 14 Oct 2026.manual-2026-10-14 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

Korea AI Basic Act South Korea · In force

Korea AI Basic Act Enforcement Decree South Korea · In force

Korea high-impact AI operator duties guideline South Korea · Published (non-binding, current)

Korea AI impact assessment guideline South Korea · Published (non-binding, current)

Korea AI transparency guideline (Art. 31) South Korea · Published (non-binding, current)

Citation

Ministry of Science and ICT and National Information Society Agency (NIA). Guideline for Determining High-Impact AI (Article 33(3) of the AI Basic Act). 2026-01-22. https://www.nia.or.kr/common/board/Download.do?bcIdx=28987&cbIdx=99835&fileNo=27. Status: Published (non-binding, current); verified 2026-10-18 (level B). Local copy archive/KR-06/2026-10-12/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-12 04:43:55 UTC, SHA-256 c67782a5b61bbcc4753925c6fea47dbca8a522d67c0966aa8ea32782a2da005c. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record KR-06.

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