Bank of Korea's AI 'BOKI' revolutionizes work efficiency

“I need to write a report on the Korea-US interest rate differential, what data should I look at?”

In the past, this task would have taken more than half a day, painstakingly searching through statistical systems and past reports. But now, the Bank of Korea's generative artificial intelligence (AI), 'BOKI', instantly recommends Korean and US government bond yield data and related time-series data.

BOKI is linked to the BOK's internal data platform, 'BIDAS', and finds the information users are looking for among approximately 19 million data sets.

In the past, due to the network isolation environment, internal and external data had to be searched separately. However, since BOKI was introduced in January, it has become possible to search them all at once.

In addition to data search and analysis, BOKI also has functions for searching internal regulations, translating documents, and searching research and study materials.

Employees are evaluating that their work methods have changed in just over 4 months since BOKI was introduced.

A BOK employee said on the 26th, “When I received an urgent directive, I used to be at a loss about where to start, but now I consult with BOK first. It feels like I have a colleague who thinks about work with me.”

◇ "Full-scale design of proprietary AI in 'ChatGPT shock'... 'Internal data utilization is key'"

The BOK has been continuing research using digital new technologies such as AI and machine learning (ML) since establishing the Digital Innovation Division in 2020.

As the pace of digital transformation accelerated with the emergence of private generative AIs like ChatGPT, building its own AI emerged as a key task.

A BOK Digital Innovation Division official explained, “We had always felt the need for AI adoption, but after the emergence of ChatGPT, we significantly increased the speed from our existing plans and began full-scale construction of our own AI.”

The characteristic of a central bank, where sensitive information such as financial market analysis is exchanged, makes it difficult to input internal documents into external AI, which was another background for deciding to build its own AI.

A BOK official who participated in the development of BOKI explained, “Even if the performance is somewhat lacking compared to the latest global models, an environment where internal data can be safely utilized was important.”

During the BOKI development process, the BOK organized about 1.4 million internal documents into a format that AI could learn.

Some departments were reluctant to share data. This was because there was resistance to providing data used only by specific departments for AI learning.

Even after securing the data, it reportedly took considerable time for personal information removal, sensitive information classification, and duplicate document organization.

Naver was selected as the development partner due to security requirements.

For public and financial institutions to operate generative AI, they must meet the National Intelligence Service's security guidelines, and it is known that the number of businesses that met these requirements at the time was limited.

Subsequently, the BOK completed its proprietary AI platform, BOKI, based on Naver's cloud infrastructure and large language model (LLM).

◇ 'Translation' is the most satisfactory function... 'AI Press Officer' is also popular

Among BOKI's functions, translation has the highest satisfaction rate.

The BOK simultaneously writes and distributes various economic indicators, forecasts, and policy reports in Korean and English. Since a significant portion of the data is confidential until public release, it is not easy to use external translation services.

A BOK staff member said, “It usually took about two days to translate external publications, but I experienced completing it in 4 hours using BOKI.”

He added, “BOKI often recommends appropriate English expressions commonly used in central bank reports, so I feel that BOKI understands the economic and monetary policy context quite well.”

The 'AI Press Officer' function is also popular. This feature, which takes press releases or reports and provides suggested article titles, article structures, and key issues, is reportedly highly utilized not only by the press office but also by general department staff.

A manager-level employee explained, “Press office staff communicate frequently with reporters and understand the media's perspective to some extent, but staff in other departments do not.” He added, “The AI Press Officer is a kind of simulation tool to preview what kind of articles will be reported based on the materials they have written.”

Data from major media company article titles were used in the AI Press Officer's learning process, and Yonhap News articles had a high proportion in this process.

Another employee said, “Since Yonhap News is one of the media outlets that extensively covers BOK's data, it was naturally used a lot when connecting press releases with expected article titles.”

◇ "Although lagging behind private AI"... BOKI is also attracting attention from overseas central banks

BOKI's satisfaction is not high in all areas.

In particular, in research and study tasks, private AI services such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are still evaluated as having the upper hand.

A BOK employee said, “Sometimes BOKI's answer sources appeared as Wikipedia, and it sometimes gave answers that did not match the intent of the question.”

In fact, employees use private AI in parallel for searching research materials and general information.

The ability to interpret complex tables is also cited as a challenge. Errors often occur when analyzing the multi-layered tables that frequently appear in BOK reports.

Despite these limitations, interest from overseas central banks in BOKI continues.

According to the BOK, BOKI is the 'world's first central bank sovereign AI' built based on a central bank's internal data and closed network.

For this reason, inquiries about BOKI's construction experience and operational know-how are continuously coming in, especially from central banks in Eastern Europe and Asia that subscribe to paid private AI services.

A Digital Innovation Division official said, “Central banks in foreign countries often express concerns that even if they subscribe to paid versions, the usage rate is low because they cannot utilize internal files.” He added, “We receive more inquiries about BOKI from outside than from within.”

◇ From 'Cannot answer non-work-related questions' to 'Warm compress for stye'... BOKI 2.0

The Bank of Korea has been pilot-testing BOKI 2.0 for about a month.

The biggest change is the integration of functions. Previously, users had to navigate between menus for different functions, but in version 2.0, search, analysis, and regulation lookups are possible on a single screen.

The response method has also changed.

Version 1.0 often ended conversations by stating, “Cannot answer” to questions unrelated to work, but 2.0 is designed to continue conversations more naturally.

A BOK employee said, “I recently had a stye and asked BOKI, and it advised me to try a warm compress. In the past, it would have refused to answer, saying it was a 'question unrelated to work,' but now it converses much more naturally.”

However, 2.0 is not yet the official version.

Currently, only version 1.0 has received approval from the National Intelligence Service. Version 2.0, which adds functions such as internet search, requires additional security approval from the NIS.

A BOK official stated, “We plan to conduct additional tests for version 2.0 in June, reflect the improvements, and aim to release the official version around July.”