SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea will require advertisers to label their ads created using artificial intelligence technology from next year as it seeks to curb the surge deceptive promotions involving fabricated experts or fake celebrities promoting food or pharmaceutical products on social media.
Following a policy meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Wednesday, officials said they would step up scrutiny and removal of problematic AI-generated ads and impose fines, citing growing risks for consumers – especially older people who have difficulty determining whether content is created by artificial intelligence.
Lee Dong-hoon, director of economic and financial policy at the Government Policy Coordination Office, said at a briefing that such advertising “disturbs market order” and that “swift action is now needed.”
“Anyone who creates, edits and publishes photos or videos generated by AI will be required to label them as AI-generated, and users of the platform will be prohibited from removing or changing these labels,” he said.
Advertisements created using artificial intelligence using digital expert technology or deepfake videos and audio recordings of celebrities promoting everything from diet pills and cosmetics to illegal gambling sites have become a staple of South Korea's YouTube, Facebook and other social media spaces.
The government will seek to review the telecommunications law and other relevant laws so that AI labeling requirements, as well as enhanced monitoring and punitive measures, can come into force in early 2026. Companies operating platforms will also be responsible for ensuring advertisers comply with labeling rules, Lee said.
Officials say it is becoming increasingly difficult to track and detect the growing number of false advertisements fueled by artificial intelligence. South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety identified more than 96,700 illegal online advertisements for food and pharmaceutical products in 2024 and 68,950 through September this year, up from about 59,000 in 2023.
The problem also extends to areas such as private education, cosmetics and illegal gambling services, leaving the Korea Consumer Protection Agency and other watchdogs struggling to keep up, the Government Policy Coordination Office said.
In addition to deceptive advertising and disinformation, South Korea is also grappling with sexual violence thanks to artificial intelligence and other digital technologies. A Seoul court sentenced the 33-year-old man to prison last month. life in prison for running an online blackmail network that sexually exploited or abused more than 200 victims, including many minors, who were threatened with deepfakes and other manipulated images and videos of a sexual nature.
Officials plan to increase fines as well as introduce punitive measures next year to discourage artificial intelligence-generated false advertising, saying those who knowingly spread false or fabricated information online or through other telecommunications networks could be held liable for damages up to five times the losses incurred.
Officials will also increase monitoring and speed up removal procedures, including allowing review within 24 hours and introducing an emergency process to block malicious ads even before discussions are completed. They also plan to expand the monitoring capabilities of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Consumer Protection Agency – using artificial intelligence, of course.
Prime Minister Kim, No. 2 official in Seoul President Lee Jae-myungsaid during a policy meeting that it was critical to “minimize the side effects of new technologies” as the country enters the “era of artificial intelligence.”
Plans to label advertisements created by artificial intelligence were announced as Lee confirmed his government ambitions for AI, promising a national effort to bolster South Korea's capabilities in advanced computer chips that fuel the global artificial intelligence race.
The government's plans include increasing spending on research and development of artificial intelligence chips and other advanced semiconductor products, as well as expanding the country's chip manufacturing centers beyond metropolitan areas near the capital Seoul to southern regions. South Korean chip makers, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together captured more than 65% of the global memory chip market last year.
The Ministry of Science and Telecommunications also said on Wednesday it would require the country's wireless operators to migrate to standalone 5G networks, considered optimal for advanced artificial intelligence applications due to their higher throughput and lower latency, as a condition for renewing 3G and LTE licenses.
