The government is considering a program to subsidize subscription fees for paid artificial intelligence (AI) models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for vulnerable groups including low-income households and job-seeking youth, according to reports on the 10th.
According to reporting by ChosunBiz, the starting point for this program is the participatory budgeting system. The Ministry of Planning and Budget has said it will fully activate the participatory budgeting system starting this year. It plans to compile and announce projects to be commercialized from ideas proposed by the public at a later date.
A proposal for an "AI voucher" drawing attention as a representative case suggests providing about $20 (30,000 won) in subscription fees for a year to 100,000 people. The total project budget proposed is 50 billion won.
The proponent compared the performance gap between free AI and paid AI to "the difference between a bicycle and a sports car," stressing that this gap deepens economic inequality. The logic is that vulnerable groups who cannot afford subscription fees inevitably fall behind in productivity because they cannot use high-performance AI features such as data analysis or coding assistance.
Overseas cases were also presented as grounds. Estonia introduced paid-grade AI across its secondary education system, and in the United States, Harvard University and Arizona State University are bulk-purchasing AI licenses with public education budgets and distributing them to all students.
The Ministry of Science and ICT will oversee the program. The Ministry of Science and ICT recently submitted next year's budget request, including this program, to the Ministry of Planning and Budget. An official at the Ministry of Science and ICT said, "We drafted the request to align as closely as possible with the public proposal."
The Ministry of Planning and Budget plans to review participatory budgeting projects selected as excellent programs, including this one. Accordingly, specific eligibility criteria have not yet been set. However, the government has operated various voucher programs for low-income groups such as recipients of the basic livelihood guarantee and the near-poor.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) is already running an AI voucher program, but beneficiaries are limited to corporations such as small and venture companies, medical institutions, and small business owners. It supports up to 200 million won in expense for corporations to adopt AI systems.
An official at the Ministry of Planning and Budget said, "Because it is an idea proposed by the public, we will actively review it," adding, "However, the government plan is still under review, and the budget has not been finalized."