Blue House: “President Lee didn’t ask AI about state affairs; he was checking the facts”

[Financial News] On the 22nd, the Blue House said, in response to President Lee Jae Myung’s citing of an answer from Gemini, a generative artificial intelligence (AI), that “he wasn’t asking AI about state affairs; he was checking the facts.”
Seong Ki-hong, the Blue House’s senior presidential secretary for public communication, told reporters at the Chunchugwan Press Center that “reporting or claiming that the president relies on AI to run state affairs misleads and distorts the facts.”
The previous day, President Lee posted on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “I asked Gemini,” and rebutting claims that the heads of the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crime Investigation Agency could not sit in on meetings of the State Council of South Korea. This prompted criticism from within and outside political circles that the president might be relying on AI as a basis for running state affairs.
Secretary Seong explained that “the president was emphasizing that the facts at issue—the relevant provisions in the Constitution, the Government Organization Act and other laws—could be readily confirmed by asking Gemini.”
He added, “The basis for investigative agency chiefs attending the State Council, set out in the previous day’s post on X, was not some new argument discovered through AI; it was what the president had said publicly at the State Council meeting on the 13th.”
Secretary Seong also rebutted reports interpreting President Lee’s call for a strict crackdown on serious crimes as a directive to investigators. He asked rhetorically, “The president said that investigative resources should be fully mobilized to crack down firmly on serious crimes—including white-collar crime and power-related corruption—that destroy people’s lives and disrupt social order, without regard to who is on which side and without treating anyone as above the law. Is that directing an investigation?”
He criticized the report as “a deeply regrettable and distorted article that spreads the false impression that the president is directing investigative agency chiefs attending a State Council meeting on specific individual cases.”
Regarding investigative agency chiefs sitting in on State Council meetings, he explained, “The National Sovereignty Government runs the State Council as a forum where heads of government agencies share the administration’s governing philosophy and current issues, and discuss and resolve livelihood-related problems in practical terms.” He added, “The newly launched Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Office also fall into this category as members of the government organization.”
Secretary Seong stressed, “The National Sovereignty Government is firmly committed to ensuring fairness in investigations, political neutrality, and independence in prosecution decisions, and these principles will not waver. We make clear that no matters relating to directing investigations or prosecutions in specific individual cases will be discussed at State Council meetings.”
During a subsequent question-and-answer session, a Blue House official countered concerns that regular attendance by investigative agency chiefs could create political pressure, saying that judging the political neutrality of investigations solely by whether they sit in on meetings was one-sided. The official explained that institutional safeguards, such as separating investigations from prosecutions, and the commitment of the president and agency chiefs to uphold their independence were also important.
The official said, “It is an excessive concern to view the issue of sitting in on State Council meetings itself as causing a problem.” Asked whether the phrase “unconstitutional sophistry and specious arguments” in the previous day’s post on X reflected the president’s own view, the official replied, “Yes.”
[email protected] Seong Seok-woo Reporter