South Korea Launches Nationwide AI Program Offering Unlimited Free Access to All Citizens

South Korea intends to provide its entire population with free access to premium generative AI under a new initiative called “AI for All,” marking what the Wall Street Journal reports as the first time a national government has treated AI model access as a public service.

The AI tools will be integrated into government systems, with potential use cases including booking doctor’s appointments, finding housing, and seeking tax advice. Small businesses will be able to calculate taxes and check eligibility for state support schemes, while parents will receive suggested educational materials for their children.

Seoul selected three tech consortia on Friday to deliver these services, including the country’s two largest telecom operators and the company behind Kakao. Each will launch a dedicated app while embedding the AI into products people already use, with usage remaining uncapped and free of token limits.

The government will divide up to 512 of Nvidia’s high-end B200 chips between the three groups and contribute toward running costs. While the Ministry of Science and ICT has not disclosed the total cost, beta testing starts in September, with a full rollout planned for later this year.

Approximately two-thirds of South Koreans have tried AI, and roughly 23 million use generative tools regularly. However, most rely on foreign free tiers: ChatGPT counted 23.45 million Korean users in April, compared to 8.45 million for Gemini and 2.41 million for Claude, according to figures in the ministry’s tender documents. Only about 1.8 million people in the country pay for any AI service.

The rules are designed to shift this dynamic. Operators must route at least half of all queries through their own certified Korean foundation model and another 30% through models built by other Korean firms, putting the domestic floor at 80%. Foreign models are allowed only where the ministry considers them necessary, and that usage draws no subsidy. The government has set no target for uptake.

Building Independence from U.S. and Chinese Models

The goal is to steer South Korean citizens away from depending on systems built in the United States or China, something that other governments have aimed for from a different end.

The European Commission launched InvestAI in February 2025 to mobilize $232 billion across the bloc, including $23 billion earmarked for vast compute sites meant to cut European reliance on non-EU providers. India approved its IndiaAI Mission in March 2024 with about $1.25 billion, and has since put tens of thousands of subsidised GPUs within reach of startups and researchers while funding 20 homegrown model projects. Both aspire to build the machinery, where Seoul is handing citizens the finished product.

President Lee Jae Myung’s administration has earmarked about $7.2 billion (10 trillion won) for AI spending in 2026, three times what it committed the previous year.

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