“I Asked Gemini,” Lee Says... Opposition: “Then Let’s Just Replace the President With AI, Too”

Backlash over defense of investigative and prosecutorial agency chiefs attending Cabinet meetings
Lee draws the line at directing investigations into individual cases

After President Lee Jae-myung cited an answer from Gemini, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, to rebut the controversy over whether the heads of the Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (SCIA) should attend Cabinet meetings, opposition parties went on the offensive. The People Power Party and the Reform Party criticized the use of an AI answer to explain issues involving the political neutrality of investigative and prosecutorial agencies as inappropriate.

Lee Jun-seok, former leader of the New Reform Party. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

On October 21, President Lee posted on X (formerly Twitter) under the title “I asked Gemini.” He shared an AI answer arguing that calls to bar the heads of the Prosecution Office and the SCIA from attending Cabinet meetings amounted to denying the president’s administrative oversight authority. The answer, which was made public, described the argument that the heads of the two agencies could not attend as an “unconstitutional sophistry” that denied Article 11 of the Government Organization Act. It also argued that allowing agency heads under the president’s direction and supervision to discuss matters within their remit at Cabinet meetings was consistent with responsible government.

The controversy erupted when Kim Jiyong, head of the SCIA, attended a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Lee for the first time on October 20. Opposition parties expressed concern that the presence of an investigative agency chief at a meeting chaired by the president could undermine the independence and political neutrality of investigations. The opposition immediately pushed back after President Lee responded on social media using Gemini.

First, Reform Party lawmaker Lee Junseok said, “This is absurd. The president has started citing Gemini as a basis for governing.” He went on to sarcastically suggest that if the president was going to rely on Gemini, it might be better to replace the president with Gemini, saying, “No legal risks, no criminal record, no swearing, no mortgage liens—it’s superior in every way.” Lee also recalled that President Lee Jae-myung had previously criticized the accuracy of Gemini’s answers. “He was the one who scolded Gemini just a few months ago, saying it sometimes gives absurd answers,” Lee said, posting an article about the earlier remarks as well.

President Lee Jaemyung cited an answer from the generative AI Gemini to rebut controversy over the heads of the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency attending Cabinet meetings. SNS

Cho Yongsul, a spokesperson for the People Power Party, also said in a statement that day, “Since when did AI answers become a substitute for the legitimacy of governing?” He criticized the president’s use of an AI answer to rebut concerns about political neutrality as unbecoming of a president, asking, “Is he the people’s president or an AI president?” Park Chungkwon, the party’s senior spokesperson, also criticized the move on social media, arguing that legal interpretation should not be entrusted to AI instead of the Constitutional Court and the Ministry of Government Legislation.

In a counterattack, Park shared a Gemini answer arguing that asking AI about matters of national importance and using it as a basis for the legitimacy of government undermines responsible government and the rule of law. Independent lawmaker Han Donghoon raised concerns about the independence of investigative and prosecutorial agencies. “Even if you brought in Gemini’s grandpa, the president must not direct investigations or prosecutions,” Han said, claiming that the government was turning the SCIA into a “subservient agency” and the Prosecution Office into a “political maneuvering agency.”

In a separate post, President Lee said that the SCIA and the Prosecution Office, too, are administrative agencies under the direction of the president, prime minister and ministers. He argued that there was no reason to treat investigative agencies as an exception, since the heads of other agencies under ministries also attend Cabinet meetings. However, he drew a line at the possibility of directing investigations into individual cases. “You don’t need to worry; I will not direct investigations into specific cases,” President Lee said. He also stressed that prosecutors did not need to be loyal to the president, and that democratic oversight was important alongside the independence of investigative work.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.