South Korea is reportedly planning to give its entire population free access to generative AI services, which is going to be a state-led initiative that treats artificial intelligence as an essential public utility. The main motive behind government-backed AI services is to offer free, all-purpose access to AI chatbots and agents capable of managing everyday tasks. Just a day ago, the Ministry of Science and ICT said it chose the three syndicates from six bidders for its ‘AI for Everyone’ projects, intended to expand across the domestic ecosystem.
The government is planning to offer the three groups a combined 512 NVIDIA B200 graphics processing units and crucial plans to finance nationwide service expenses from 2027. The project also goes far beyond traditional chatbots, utilizing agentic AI that can navigate public services and leverage niche sectors like finance, health care, housing, and education. SK Telecom plans an autonomous agent that can take a request from planning via execution.
The same can be digitally accessible through the web, phone calls, and text messages while using AI-powered calls to reach entities operating on analog communications without digital interfaces. The artificial intelligence is designed to guide users from comparisons to assessing tasks within a single conversation. Apart from that, the ministry also intends to close a deal with three groups in September before launching beta services and a full year-end development.
The biggest impact of this move by South Korea is going to be affordability. There are a lot of people who cannot justify ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or other premium services and a government-supported alternative without usage limits as well. South Korea says around a third of its population still cannot use AI, making the initiative partly an attempt to reduce the AI divide. Furthermore, AI models rather than becoming heavily dependent on Chinese or US AI firms.
