South Korea Plans Free Unlimited AI Access for Everyone

SEOUL: (News Desk) – South Korea is preparing a potentially groundbreaking initiative to provide free and unlimited artificial intelligence services to nearly all of its 52 million citizens, in a plan inspired by the way public broadband and education services are provided.

The government says the programme is designed to give people convenient access to advanced AI chatbots that could assist with a wide range of everyday needs, including health, financial matters and general information.

If implemented as planned, the initiative could make South Korea the first country to treat AI access as an essential public service rather than a technology available primarily to paying users.

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT announced on Friday that three consortiums had been selected from six groups that submitted bids for the “AI for Everyone” project.

As part of the programme, the government will provide the three selected consortiums with a combined 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs to support the expansion of the country’s domestic AI infrastructure and ecosystem.

Authorities have also drawn up a long-term funding plan aimed at covering the full cost of providing the nationwide service from 2027.

According to the ministry, formal agreements with the selected consortiums are expected to be signed by September. A beta version of the service is then expected to be introduced, with nationwide public access targeted for the end of the year.

The initiative reflects South Korea’s broader effort to ensure that access to advanced AI is not limited by income or technical resources.

By placing AI alongside other widely available public services, the government is signalling its ambition to make artificial intelligence an everyday tool accessible to citizens across the country.