‘Other governments will be watching this closely’ — South Korea starts testing free AI for the public

Most governments still talk about artificial intelligence as something to regulate or subsidize.

South Korea is trying something considerably bolder.

It wants to make advanced AI available free to every citizen, treating access less like a premium software subscription and more like a basic piece of national infrastructure.

The country's Ministry of Science and ICT has selected three consortiums, led by SK Telecom, KT and Kakao, for its "AI for All" program .

The plan is to give Koreans free, unlimited access to general-purpose AI services built primarily on domestic models, with beta testing before a full launch expected by the end of 2026.

The government is supplying a combined 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs this year and plans to subsidize nationwide operating costs from 2027.

That already sounds like a government-backed ChatGPT competitor, but South Korea's ambitions go considerably further.

The services are supposed to develop into agents capable of helping citizens find government programs, submit applications, make reservations and payments, and carry out other tasks.

The government's longer-term ambition is effectively one AI agent for every citizen.

Plenty here could attract international attention, but the project’s real value may have little to do with giving everyone a free chatbot.

Far more than a chatbot South Korea has a strong argument for intervening.

Its science ministry says roughly two-thirds of Koreans have used AI services, and around 23 million people have used generative AI.

ChatGPT alone had an estimated 23.45 million monthly active users, with Gemini and Claude having far lower but still notable monthly users of 8.45 million and 2.41 million, respectively.

Those figures are impressive until you consider the people missing from them.