[Edaily Starin Gim Ga Yeong Reporter] “Since EBS is an educational broadcaster, we feel a sense of mission to present high-quality educational content that does not compromise educational value when utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). We are proceeding with production while exercising caution, as the use of AI by EBS that does not guarantee educational value would be a dangerous and irresponsible act.”

Oh Jeong-ho, Head of the EBS AI Knowledge Content Division, made these remarks regarding EBS’s AI strategy as the organization leads industry transformation through the comprehensive integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In a recent interview with Edaily, Oh added, “As a public broadcaster, EBS believes it must adhere to guidelines and handbooks that are far more rigorous than those of other organizations, and we are working toward that goal.”
◇“AI Without Educational Value Is Dangerous”… EBS’s ‘AI Principles’
As part of these efforts, EBS launched the first AI Content Advisory Committee among broadcasters. Director Oh explained, “The EBS Content Advisory Committee was established based on this understanding,” adding, “It features a dual structure consisting of internal guidelines and an external advisory group, and is composed of Korea’s leading experts in the humanities, data, technology, copyright, and youth protection.” The “AI Content Advisory Committee” goes beyond conducting academic and technical reviews of content outputs, devising measures to ensure academic rigor, and recommending new technologies; it comprehensively addresses the ethical and social challenges that public broadcasting faces across the entire spectrum of AI content production, including copyright issues, deepfakes, and media literacy.
EBS is taking a leading role in the broadcasting industry—where AI is typically applied only to certain aspects of production—by unveiling programs produced entirely with AI. These include “AI Drama: The Lesson of Resurrection,” which uses AI to bring to life the stories of historical figures such as Ahn Jung-geun, Kim Gu, and Socrates, and “AI Classics: 100 Books That Changed History,” which selected 100 classic works and brought them to life using AI technology.
Referring to the production of “AI Classics: 100 Books That Changed History,” Director Oh explained, “This is the kind of content that would normally take at least six months to a year to prepare—from analyzing the classics to writing the script and filming—but using AI, we were able to shorten that to six weeks.” More importantly, he noted that by making possible what could not be achieved through live-action filming, the content has broadened viewers’ understanding and knowledge, thereby enhancing its educational value.
Director Oh noted, “Even professionals in the education sector tell us there is no textbook quite like this,” adding, “It’s being used in school classes as well, which means these examples have been recognized as educational content.”
The AI Knowledge Content Department, led by Director Oh Jeong-ho, is a newly established division dedicated to the specialized use of AI. It is this department that is giving birth to AI-driven regular programming. Director Oh remarked, “With the unfamiliar title of ‘Head of the AI Knowledge Content Department,’ I’ve spent the past eight months intensively experiencing AI innovation. AI innovation comes not from one-off specials, but from the mass production of regular content,” he said. “It’s not that difficult to create AI content as a special feature or to produce a specific sequence lasting a few minutes with cinematic quality. The challenge lies not in a single spectacular special or sequence, but in the ability to design and maintain a system capable of consistently producing regular content—daily or weekly—using AI technology,” he said, highlighting the significance of producing shows like “AI Drama: Resurrection Class” and “AI Classics: 100 Books That Changed History.”
He also noted that attitudes toward AI within EBS are changing. Director Oh said, “There are increasing opportunities for training and learning in various formats. Internal training programs conducted by headquarters and centers are constantly filling the bulletin boards, and we’re seeing everyone learning Vibe Coding while thinking about what to do with it—both in groups and individually.”

◇“While AI Destroys and Replaces Jobs… the ‘Linear Labor Structure’ Will Change”
While the use of AI in the broadcasting industry is expanding various possibilities and bringing positive effects such as cost and time savings, it is also accompanied by concerns such as the replacement of human labor. Director Oh said, “AI performs tasks such as research, simple translation, and data organization better than humans, and it will be difficult to return to the way things were in these areas,” adding, “This raises an important question about how we humans should coexist with AI.” In particular, he noted that he had learned the lesson that “the vague fear of being replaced is actually me replacing my own work,” and emphasized that it is time to consider how to utilize AI and explore the possibilities for interaction.
Director Oh also mentioned the potential for new jobs that AI will create. He explained, “While AI technology will undoubtedly disrupt and replace the work of content creators, it can also create new jobs. These jobs aren’t entirely new; rather, they are roles discovered by existing workers as they interact with AI.”
In fact, the “AI Classics” program has given writers a new title: “story creators.” Rather than focusing on tasks that AI can replace, the program is emphasizing roles such as collecting, connecting, structuring, and editing stories. Director Oh said, “Rather than trying to beat AI, we are discovering new patterns of creation and redefining what it means to create.”
As EBS is currently experiencing, Director Oh believes this trend will extend to the broadcasting industry as a whole. “The sequential, linear structure of work—where writers, assistant writers, producers, assistant directors, directors of photography, editing directors, graphics directors, and cable network directors work in succession—will be disrupted,” Director Oh noted. “The lead in simple, text-based tasks such as research, translation, and subtitling has already shifted to AI, and the importance of filming has relatively diminished. He also pointed out, “Multi-camera editing is shifting toward prompt-based automated editing tools, so organizations must consider how to embrace AI and co-evolve with it.”
Director Oh stated, “Going forward, rather than indiscriminately churning out AI-generated content, EBS must meticulously design and produce content from the perspectives of ‘knowledge’ and ‘historical records.’ “When you think about it, AI also relies on source data. In other words, we must raise the strength and purity of the ‘groundedness’—the foundational knowledge upon which AI-generated images and information are based—to a global standard,” he added.
He continued, “For EBS, as a public broadcaster, to survive in the AI era and function as a hub of knowledge in South Korea, it must co-evolve with AI,” adding, “It appears that the only solution lies in dense, highly reliable knowledge—high-quality knowledge developed in collaboration with domestic and international experts—on which AI outputs can be based.”