Special Feature Suwon on the Brink of Change 4: 'Citizen-Centered AI Pioneer City' Suwon
[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] The government's declared 'AI basic society' aims to substantially guarantee citizens' fundamental rights by leveraging artificial intelligence technology and create an era of 'AI for all' where anyone can easily use artificial intelligence.
Suwon Special City is actively working to realize a 'citizen-centered AI pioneer city' that harnesses artificial intelligence to benefit all residents. Additionally, the city is accelerating 'AI administrative innovation' by strengthening public officials' AI utilization capabilities.
On October 1 last year, the city established the AI Smart Policy Bureau, the first nation-level dedicated AI organization among basic local governments, and is swiftly responding to changes in the artificial intelligence era.
'Realizing an AI basic society of inclusion and innovation, tangible experience and trust'
Suwon's AI policy vision is 'realizing an AI basic society of inclusion and innovation, tangible experience and trust.'
The city has set three major goals: 'realizing basic AI rights for all citizens,' 'fostering an AI industry ecosystem,' and 'AI-based administrative innovation,' and is pursuing AI-based projects divided into sectors: △AI Citizens' Office △AI Industry Office △AI Administration Office and △AI education and talent development.
The AI Citizens' Office discovers and implements projects to help citizens live more conveniently and safely based on artificial intelligence. These include △construction of generative AI chatbot service on Suwon City's website △AI-based disaster and safety prevention system △AI-based transportation revolution.
The generative AI chatbot is a conversational service based on a large language model. Citizens can ask questions in everyday language about desired information such as welfare and tourism to the chatbot on Suwon City's website, and it will understand the context and intent of the question to provide answers anytime, 24/7. The service is scheduled to launch in the second half of this year.
The AI Industry Office plans to implement projects including advanced industry talent development boot camp in partnership with local universities, AI-focused universities, physical AI industry ecosystem development, and construction of AI demonstration centers and physical AI spread centers.
Administrative innovation based on artificial intelligence
The goal of the AI Administration Office is 'AI-based administrative innovation.' Major projects include △construction of AI-based intelligent task management platform △establishment of integrated AI security management system △development of AI ethics guidelines.
To leverage generative AI across all administrative functions, the city launched the 'Suwon AI Work Assistant' service for public officials in January.
The Suwon AI Work Assistant is an AI work support service that allows users to leverage various generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude on a single platform. It supports document-based administrative tasks including document writing, drafting responses to civil complaints, and translation. It is receiving positive assessments for significantly improving work efficiency.
In the second half of this year, the city plans to take the lead in adopting the 'AI-based intelligent task management platform' being pursued by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and comprehensively implement artificial intelligence across all work processes.
To prevent negative effects from artificial intelligence such as the spread of misinformation, the city plans to establish 'AI ethics guidelines.'
Systematically promoting AI education
The most important task in implementing an AI basic society is AI education and talent development. The city plans to systematically promote AI education so that all citizens can utilize artificial intelligence and public officials can innovate administration using artificial intelligence.
The city is cultivating 'AI talent' by providing AI education to citizens and public officials and working to realize a 'citizen-centered AI pioneer city.'
AI education for citizens is being implemented by nine departments of Suwon City and three collaborative institutions, with approximately 40,000 people targeted for education this year. Specialized courses tailored to educational targets including job seekers, children, and youth will also be offered.
To enable public officials to efficiently utilize artificial intelligence, the city began operating 'AI Smart Work' and 'Suwon AI Work Assistant' utilization courses in February.
The AI Smart Work (AI Practical Master) course consists of a curriculum immediately applicable to practical work including △practical methods of using generative AI for administrative tasks △creating promotional materials using image generation tools △automatic analysis of Excel data and AI-based report writing techniques. AI Smart Work is expected to enable public officials to provide sophisticated administrative services to citizens based on data.
The Suwon AI Work Assistant utilization course targets all public officials. It introduces the platform's key features and usage methods, and covers effective prompt utilization techniques and considerations for data security and personal information protection.
A city official stated, "By efficiently utilizing artificial intelligence, we will make citizens' daily lives more convenient and realize warm administration where no one is left behind," and added, "We will expand the use of artificial intelligence across administration to create an environment where public officials can focus on creative and meaningful work."