The Ministry of Science and ICT held a business roundtable on September 4 with the three consortia — SKT, Kakao and KT — selected for the ‘AI for All’ project, listening to each company’s development plans and discussing cooperation measures for a public service launch within the year. The first blueprint has been unveiled for whether a homegrown AI service driven by the government can take root in citizens’ daily lives.
 [코리안투데이] Business roundtable marking the launch of the ‘AI for All’ project © 장형임 기자 |
The Ministry of Science and ICT (led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon) held a business roundtable at 10 a.m. on September 4 in the press conference hall on the 19th floor of the Korea Press Center, hearing the service development plans of the three consortia selected for the ‘AI for All’ project and discussing cooperation measures. The selected consortia are, in Korean alphabetical order, SK Telecom (SKT), Kakao and KT.
Given the high level of interest in launching a public service within the year, the roundtable was arranged so that the companies’ service development plan presentations were open to the press. ‘AI for All’ is a project tied to the national agenda of making Korea the country that uses AI best in the world, and it aims to create a homegrown AI service that all citizens can use easily and conveniently.
Ahead of the event, the Ministry announced its ‘Preparation Plan for Launching the AI for All Service.’ To support a launch within the year, it presented measures including linkage with public AI agents, personal data protection and security safeguards, and public-private cooperation to secure users.
The lead companies of the three consortia then took turns presenting their service development plans, including demonstration videos of prototypes. The Kakao consortium said it would provide general-purpose chatbots and public and specialized AI agents based on homegrown AI models such as Kakao’s Kanana and LG’s EXAONE through channels familiar to citizens, such as KakaoTalk and phone calls, and would build an ‘AI for All’ platform in which everything from information searches to applications, reservations and payments is completed in a single conversation. Its vision is to gradually expand personal AI agents and an open agent marketplace, while advancing homegrown AI models and broadening business opportunities for domestic AI companies.
The KT consortium introduced a service called ‘Ieum,’ which connects a real-time search-based general-purpose AI agent with specialized AI services in some ten fields such as public affairs, education, finance and shopping, so that citizens can directly experience the usefulness of AI in daily life. It also presented a plan to build an open platform that drives the growth of the national AI ecosystem by pooling the capabilities of the homegrown AI ecosystem, based on its AI operating platform ‘Token Factory,’ which integrates and operates various homegrown AI models and GPU and NPU infrastructure while automatically connecting the optimal model.
The SK Telecom consortium said it would provide an execution-oriented AI service that goes beyond simple question-and-answer to carry out procedures on the user’s behalf, from authentication to application and payment. In particular, it said it would introduce phone- and text-based agent functions to support users who have difficulty using mobile app and web environments in conveniently using the service.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon stressed that ‘the ultimate goal of the AI for All project is to ensure that a new homegrown AI service naturally takes root in citizens’ daily lives,’ adding that ‘what matters most is how easily and how often citizens access and turn to the service, and how much it actually helps their lives in the process.’ He went on to ask that ‘we pool our strength through the launch within the year, so that AI for All can establish itself as Korea’s flagship AI service — offering citizens everyday convenience and opening a new domestic AI market for businesses.’
In his closing remarks after the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Bae said, ‘I am grateful that, despite the short time, each consortium has presented a concrete service blueprint based on its own strengths,’ and added, ‘I am confident that if the government and the private sector join forces, we can successfully settle the AI for All service into citizens’ daily lives.’
The services proposed by the three consortia share the common trait of aiming for execution-oriented AI that carries out authentication, applications, reservations and payments on the user’s behalf, rather than stopping at chatbot responses. Because this would allow groups such as older adults who are less familiar with the digital environment to use administrative and everyday-life services by phone or text, if the launch takes place within the year as planned, it is expected to become an occasion that substantially broadens citizens’ access to AI. Inquiries can be made to the Artificial Intelligence Policy Planning Division of the Artificial Intelligence Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT (044-202-6270).
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