An artificial intelligence (AI) competition with total prize money of 3 billion won that anyone in the country can join will be held.
The Ministry of Science and ICT on the 26th held an opening ceremony for a nationwide AI competition for "AI for everyone," in which anyone in the country, from students to older adults, can participate, at EL Tower in Yangjae, Seoul, and signaled the full start of the competition. The event will run from April to November under the slogan "An AI festival for everyone that enjoys the possibilities of tomorrow." The Ministry of Science and ICT set a goal of more than 2 million participants.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said AI is no longer a technology for only a few experts but has become a basic literacy that everyone should learn and use in everyday life like Korean or arithmetic. In line with this, the ministry said it is pushing the "AI for everyone" policy in earnest so that anyone can feel the usefulness of AI and easily access and use it in daily life.
An official at the Ministry of Science and ICT said, "This competition is part of that effort and aims to spread a culture of using AI in our society by allowing anyone, from students to older adults, to participate," adding, "In particular, because AI spreads quickly through hands-on use rather than education, we focused on giving the public a sense of achievement in solving problems with AI."
The event was conducted in a format where key guests and ordinary people sat together and communicated freely. In particular, entertainer Kim Jong-kook, who has high public recognition, was appointed as a public ambassador for the competition. The goal is to use Kim's friendly image, familiar from broadcasts, to deliver the message that AI is not just the domain of experts but a tool anyone can use in daily life. Along with Kim Jong-kook, three supporters representing different generations—an elementary school student, a university student, and an older adult—were also appointed as ambassadors to encourage participation across all generations.
Through a declaration of cooperation by a public-private consultative body that includes relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of National Defense, and major corporations such as Kakao, SK Telecom, and LG Uplus, the competition will pool public and private capabilities. In the talk concert that followed, participants shared cases of using AI and took time to narrow the public's psychological distance from AI technologies.
The competition will be operated in four institutional sectors according to participants' capabilities: the general public, future talent (elementary, middle, and high school students), professional use (university students and researchers), and daily life innovation (vulnerable groups).
For the general public, the program consists of contests anyone can join, such as an AI quiz competition, a call for AI use cases, and finding AI errors, so that people can feel familiar with AI.
For elementary, middle, and high school students, an AI creation competition to create drawings and fairy tales with AI, and a Robotics challenge linked with hands-on robot education to solve assigned problems, will be operated to provide both opportunities for proper AI use and career exploration.
For university students and researchers, the AI Rookie and AI Champion competitions will be held to develop AI technologies and services using subject-matter knowledge. In addition, an AI Edu-thon for prospective teachers, an AI Innovation Challenge for public institutions, a defense AI competition for service members, and a defense AI ideas contest will also be held.
For vulnerable groups such as older adults and people with disabilities, the National Happiness AI Competition will be held to assess basic AI skills such as information search, and for young adults who have taken a break from work or women with careers, the Reboot AI Use Competition will support strengthening AI capabilities by producing real outputs after AI education.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to link and use domestic AI services throughout the competition so that the event can serve as a catalyst for the spread of homegrown AI services. It will operate a separate homegrown AI track in the AI Rookie and AI Champion competitions, which develop AI technologies and services, and will also use homegrown AI services to produce works for the AI creation competition. In addition, excellent participants discovered in the competition will be offered employment and startup opportunities through government programs of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS). In particular, to help outstanding ideas and results from the competition lead to actual startups, support will be provided in connection with the MSS "Startup for everyone" project.
Vice Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said, "I hope this nationwide AI competition will become a truly meaningful 'AI festival for everyone' where anyone can enjoy the possibilities of tomorrow," adding, "Starting with this competition, the government will actively back efforts to raise the public's AI use capabilities to the next level and to root a culture of AI use throughout society."
Detailed competition information and applications can be found on the integrated website, which opened on the 26th.