South Korean Tech Consortia to Launch Government-Backed AI Services in October
Three consortia led by SK Telecom, KT and Kakao will launch closed beta AI services in October under South Korea's government-led AI for All project, Yonhap News reported.
The teams, led by SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and Kakao Corp., are set to launch a closed beta version of their AI services sometime in October, the sources said.
The project, called AI for All, was unveiled in July as part of efforts to reduce South Korea's dependence on foreign AI models and boost the domestic AI sector. Developers are required to use domestic AI models for at least 50 percent of the AI services they offer. The government is providing funding and graphic processing unit support.
Developers have set a monthly active user target of 5 million for the envisioned services. Kakao has pledged to expand that figure to 10 million by 2027 and 30 million by 2030, according to Yonhap News.
South Korea plans to inject an additional 250 billion won, or US$184.37 million, starting next year to further advance the services, including costs to secure about 2,000 GPUs.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said some 23 million people in South Korea have used generative AI models so far. Most of those users, or 21 million, have used free lower-tier models, the ministry said.