The Ministry of Science and ICT on the 3rd held a launch ceremony for the "Everyone's AI growth ladder project" at the Gwangju National Science Museum and opened the "Everyone's AI learning center, lab, and lounge."
Attending the launch ceremony were Vice Premier and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, Chung Joon-ho, Lim Moon-young, and Cho In-chul, National Assembly members for Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, Ko Kwang-wan, vice mayor for culture and industry of Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, Kim Hyung-chul, head of the National Information Society Agency (NIA), and Chung Woo-sung, chair of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity (KOSAC).
The Everyone's AI growth ladder project aims to accelerate everyday AI use nationwide by: ▲ creating an online AI learning environment that links public and private AI education content in one place, ▲ going beyond simple education to connect on-the-ground innovative ideas to AI services and startups through hands-on practice and development, and ▲ expanding demonstration hubs that solve local issues with AI across the country.
The Everyone's AI learning center is an online AI education portal open to everyone. Government-run education platforms such as EBS E-Soop, School AI, K-MOOC, STEP, AI Digital Learning Center, and Small Business Knowledge Learning Center are connected. Starting this month, the scope of links will be gradually expanded to private education platforms.
The Everyone's AI lab is an online platform where anyone with an idea can develop AI services directly without expense or technical barriers. It provides one-stop support for the entire development cycle, from idea proposals and development infrastructure to sharing outcomes and linking to commercialization and startups. Users of the Everyone's AI lab receive a natural-language-based vibe-coding environment, subscription tokens for Generative AI models, private cloud, and AI development support tools. In addition, 99,000 public and private datasets and 13,000 APIs, which are core to service development, are provided.
The Everyone's AI lounge, an offline hub where people can build AI services on-site and apply and demonstrate the AI services they built directly in the field, is also being fully activated. The Everyone's AI lounges, to be established this year in five regions nationwide (Seoul metropolitan area, Gangwon, Chungcheong, Gyeongsang, Jeolla/Jeju), will help even beginners develop AI services easily through close coaching by experts. They will also serve as spaces where local residents and experts jointly identify local issues and receive AI coaching and on-site demonstrations.
At the Gwangju National Science Museum (the Jeolla/Jeju-region Everyone's AI lounge), where the opening ceremony was held that day, key attendees watched an introductory video on the "Everyone's AI growth ladder, from learning to service creation."
Vice Premier Bae Kyung-hoon said, "As we face a great transition in which AI is transforming all aspects of life, the ability to use AI is a new basic competency that everyone should have and the core of national competitiveness," adding, "Through the Everyone's AI growth ladder, we will firmly build a virtuous-cycle infrastructure that links learning to development, on-site demonstrations, and the creation of new value."