SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT, selected as operators for the "Everyone's artificial intelligence (AI)" project, held a kickoff briefing at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 4th and announced their service development goals.
Everyone's AI is a government project to develop a general-purpose chatbot and public AI agent based on domestic models to reduce reliance on foreign AI and allow all citizens to easily and conveniently use our AI services. A total of six consortia took part in the call, and three consortia, including ESTsoft, MKD, and Genon, were eliminated. The Ministry of Science and ICT will support a total of 512 Nvidia B200 graphics processing units (GPUs) for the selected three corporations and, starting next year, will fund the expense needed to provide services from the government budget. Next year's budget totals 250 billion won.
◇ Kakao "via KakaoTalk," SKT "by phone," KT "embedded in Daum search"
The three corporations plan to launch official services within the year. SK Telecom put forward an "actionable AI" that performs procedures on users' behalf from authentication to application and payment, going beyond simple Q&A. To ensure even people unfamiliar with using applications (apps) can use it, the service will be accessible by phone or text. If users call or text "1532," the AI will respond. The service will be developed around its own model, A.X K2.
Jung Jai-hun, SK Telecom president, said, "What citizens worry about is performance compared with foreign general-purpose models, but through the independent AI foundation model project, I believe the capabilities of domestic models have grown to the point where citizens can use them without inconvenience." He added, "If we rely on foreign models, there is a risk that citizens' daily lives could grind to a halt, so the need for sovereign AI cannot be overstated," and "For now, the fees for foreign AI services are at a sufficiently usable level, but we do not know when or by how much the price will rise."
Kakao formed a consortium with LG Uplus, LG AI Research, LG Electronics, and LG CNS. It plans to build Everyone's AI's large language model (LLM) with 51% from the Kana family and 49% from the EXAONE family. The goal is to build a service that completes everything from information search to application, reservation, and payment in a single conversation. Kakao plans to place an Everyone's AI entry point at the top of the KakaoTalk "Friends" tab to improve citizens' access to AI.
Chung Shin-a, Kakao CEO, said, "We will make sure citizens do not stop at trying AI once, but that AI seeps into their daily habits," adding, "We will make AI that is actually used, not AI for show." She said, "Users can go straight into the Everyone's AI service via KakaoTalk without installing a separate app," and "This year we aim for 5 million monthly active users (MAU), and 30 million in 2030."
KT introduced "Ieum," which links a real-time search-based general-purpose AI agent with specialized services in more than 10 areas, including public services, education, finance, and shopping. To let users naturally encounter AI within a familiar portal search, it chose to embed the service in the portal Daum's search. In addition to KT's own model, it integrated several domestic AI models, including Upstage, Motif Technologies, NC AI, and Saltlux. It connects the optimal model to match user requests.
Park Yoon-young, KT president, said, "We will do our utmost so that citizens say, 'I tried it, and it's really good.'" Park said, "We will build AI that not only asks and answers but also executes and resolves, and we will go to offline points of contact so that no citizen is left out," adding, "Based on the nation's best multimodal model, we will provide AI that is fast and accurate, and that guarantees economic efficiency and stability."
◇ Government: "There is almost no score gap among the three selected companies… but there is a gap with the eliminated consortia"
In the independent AI foundation model project, the government disclosed detailed evaluation scores by operator following Motif's objection, but in this Everyone's AI project it did not reveal the detailed scores and rankings of the six total operators that took part in the call. Kim Kyung-man, Ministry of Science and ICT Deputy Minister for Artificial Intelligence Policy, said, "We put fairness and objectivity first so the system does not waver," but also noted, "We decide whether to disclose scores by reflecting the will of the participating corporations; the first-place corporation wants disclosure, but those with lower rankings do not." Kim said that in the Everyone's AI call, scores were not disclosed because the participating corporations did not want it, and added, "The scores of the three final selected operators were almost similar, with virtually no difference, while, regrettably, the remaining consortia had a score gap compared with the three selected operators."
Of next year's total budget of 250 billion won, the government allocated 170 billion won for GPU usage expense. It set the cost for leasing 2,000 B200 GPUs. Settlements will be based on actual usage, so consortia with more users and higher activity will receive more of the budget. In effect, the three operators will compete based on usage performance. The remaining budget will be distributed to operator support and expansion of the agent ecosystem. Each company will receive 10 billion won, totaling 30 billion won in direct support, and the remaining 50 billion won will be invested to expand the AI agent ecosystem.
Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Since citizens are already using foreign AI, if we fail to create a clear differentiator compared with foreign services, Everyone's AI will have failed," adding, "Please join forces so we can roll out services that make citizens go 'wow.'"
Bae said, "While the goal of Everyone's AI is for any citizen to use AI, it is also an important goal to incorporate all the technologies we have promoted so far—such as the independent AI foundation model and domestic AI Semiconductor—to raise Korea's AI capability by a step or two," adding, "An AI platform corporation must emerge in Korea as well, and Everyone's AI will be the starting point." He continued, "Everyone's AI should move forward as a single brand without inducing competition among consortia," and "Through close collaboration among consortia, we will undertake joint work so Everyone's AI can advance as one brand."