In December 2003, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was officially reported for the first time in Korea. Over the 22 years through 2025, there were a total of 1,365 HPAI cases. Every winter, when migratory birds visit the Korean Peninsula, HPAI has unfailingly occurred. Over the four winters from Nov. 2020 to May 2024, the number of poultry culled due to HPAI neared 50 million. The culling compensation paid to farms exceeded 300 billion won.
HPAI has a significant impact not only on farm income but also on food prices, yet effective quarantine measures have not been established. To block HPAI, GPS units were attached to all livestock vehicles nationwide, quarantine personnel were increased, and culling processes were systematized, but HPAI recurs every winter.
Why do disasters recur even though the system is running. How can we resolve the crisis in national quarantine surrounding HPAI outbreaks.
The new book released on the 1st, "National Intelligence," transparently shows the journey to find answers to these questions.
The book was co-authored by Gu-reum, CEO of the data tech corporations Bigvalue, and Hong Seung-gil, a director at the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency. Based on their experiences building an AI-based risk prediction model for HPAI quarantine, the two present a direction for national AX (AI transformation) and examine practical obstacles.
The authors thought they would be able to use thousands of data points in building the quarantine solution, but in reality only about 60 could be used as material for AI. Various limitations emerged, including that the data were not "AI-ready data," that some data instead produced information gaps, and that some were unlikely to be generated continuously.
They overcame this and built intelligence using data that could be applied. The authors described this process as "intelligentizing records." "Data go through algorithms and become judgments, judgments lead to actions in the field, and the results of those actions are again accumulated as data to create the next version of the algorithm. This is the cycle of intelligence that does not stop."
Through this process, HPAI epidemiological analysis that had taken seven days was compressed to 10 seconds. Risks were detected before they occurred.
"National Intelligence" does not speak only of rosy prospects for AX. Rather, it lays out the numerous challenges encountered in the AX process in the form of a white paper. The failures and overcoming processes recorded like a "wrong-answer notebook" show that the "AI transformation" is not as easy as it sounds.
The authors said, "AX transition is not something that ends by adopting one excellent technology or one solution. It is a slow and arduous process that must begin with defining the problem and then together change the way data are handled, the criteria for measuring and interpreting, and the overall administrative work that accepts the results."
"National Intelligence" consists of five parts and 14 chapters. Part 1 explains why a national-level AX is needed now and what the new paradigm is that goes beyond the existing digital transformation. Part 2 then addresses how to build "AI-ready data," the core foundation of data-centered administration, and Part 3 presents strategies for field-centered administrative innovation and public service transformation. Part 4 examines the development direction of an AI society based on trust, cooperation, and civic participation, and the final Part 5 proposes policy tasks and international standard strategies for Korea to leap forward as a national intelligence powerhouse in the era of global AI competition.
Im Moon-yeong, a National Assembly member (the first vice chair of the National AI Strategy Committee), who provided a recommendation for the book, said, "The results the authors produced in the quarantine field go beyond a simple success story and specifically show what must change for Korean administration to raise 'AI adoption' to an 'AX transition,'" adding, "Weaving administration—where ministries and systems operate separately—into a single intelligence is the most urgent task Korea must undertake now."