South Korea is about to do something no other country has tried at this scale: hand every single resident a free, unlimited AI chatbot and call it a public utility.
The country’s Ministry of Science and ICT launched its “AI for All” initiative in mid-July 2026, aiming to cover roughly 51 to 52 million residents with access to a general-purpose AI chatbot and a dedicated public service AI agent. A public beta is slated for late September 2026, with the full nationwide rollout expected before year’s end.
How the program actually works
The government ran a competitive bidding process that opened on July 13, 2026, with applications closing on August 11. On August 28, the ministry picked three consortia from a pool of six bidders to operate the service. The winners: SK Telecom, KT, and Kakao, three of South Korea’s biggest tech and telecom players.
The government is supplying 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs to power the initiative, with the selected operators expected to bring additional compute resources and funding to the table. The service will remain free and unlimited through at least 2028, with additional government funding support kicking in starting 2027 to keep it that way.
At least 50% of the AI models powering the service must be domestic Korean models that meet government-set standards.
AI access as a fundamental right
South Korea simultaneously amended its AI Basic Act to formally recognize AI access as a fundamental right.
The public service AI agent component is designed to proactively help citizens identify government benefits they qualify for and walk them through the application process.
The domestic AI industry play
By requiring half the underlying technology to be homegrown, the government is creating guaranteed demand for Korean AI companies. SK Telecom, KT, and Kakao all have their own large language model efforts, and a contract to serve 52 million people is the kind of anchor client that can accelerate development timelines dramatically.