Lee Chang-yong: "First central bank to build its own AI…BOK data governance will improve"
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Summary
- Governor Lee Chang-yong said the Bank of Korea, together with Naver, has built its own AI, BOKI, which will enhance its data utilization capabilities.
- He said only a handful of countries, including the U.S. and China, possess in-house AI, adding that the BOK will be differentiated in areas such as data security and monetary policy support.
- The BOK said that with the introduction of BOKI, it plans to standardize 1.4 million internal documents and build a system to manage and share knowledge assets in an integrated manner through improved data governance.
Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Chang-yong said on the 21st, “By building our own sovereign (in-house) AI, the BOK’s ability to leverage data will increase,” adding that “only a handful of countries—such as the United States and China—have central banks capable of building their own AI, aside from Korea.”
Lee made the remarks at an ‘AX (AI Transformation) Conference’ held with Naver at the BOK Annex Conference Hall on Namdaemun-ro, Seoul. The BOK also unveiled and demonstrated BOKI (Bank of Korea Intelligence), a BOK-dedicated AI developed jointly with Naver.
Lee said, “If I had to name the most important topic across the economy and society in recent years, it would be artificial intelligence without exaggeration,” adding that it is “one of the topics I discuss most frequently with other central bank governors and heads of supervisory authorities.”
He noted, “Major central banks and supervisory authorities around the world are actively moving to build their own AI,” and said they are focusing on “automation and advancement of statistics and information collection, support for monetary policy through macro and financial analysis, monitoring and operation of payment and settlement systems, supervision of financial institutions, and financial stability analysis.”
What differentiates the BOK’s AI from these efforts is that it is an “in-house AI.” Lee explained, “Except for a small number of countries such as the United States, China and Korea that have independent AI software development capabilities, most countries choose to use AI services provided by global leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, while securing elements such as data security on their own rather than developing AI models themselves.”
Lee emphasized that building an in-house AI will also help the AI industry ecosystem. He said, “Fostering the industry ecosystem so the AI industry can continue to grow carries very important significance from an industrial policy perspective,” adding, “Developing AI in cooperation with Naver is expected to serve as an opportunity to further invigorate Korea’s AI industry through public-private collaboration.”
The BOK expects the newly introduced BOKI to improve data governance. Lee said, “In the process of preparing for AI adoption, we standardized about 1.4 million internal documents into a form that AI can understand, and we also plan to introduce a system to manage and share our knowledge assets in an integrated way,” adding, “In the past, work data tended to be managed more as an individual’s asset than the organization’s, and there was a strong perception that only by taking charge of a particular task could one continue to carry out key work based on that information. But with the introduction of AI-based data governance, the privatization of knowledge will gradually become more difficult.”
Reporter Kang Jin-kyu josep@hankyung.com
