South Korea reportedly plans free, unlimited AI access for all citizens

South Korea reportedly plans to give every citizen free access to generative AI. Usage will have no token limits. The services will connect to government systems. Potential uses include booking medical appointments, finding apartments, and getting tax advice. Small businesses will be able to calculate taxes. Small businesses will also be able to check eligibility for state support schemes. Parents will receive suggested educational materials for their children. Seoul named three technology consortia to deliver the services. The consortia include the country's two largest telecoms operators. The company behind Kakao is also part of the group. Each consortium will launch a dedicated app. Each consortium will also integrate AI into products that people already use. The government will divide up to 512 Nvidia B200 chips among the three groups. The government will contribute to their operating costs. The Ministry of Science and ICT has not disclosed the program's cost. Beta testing will start in September. A full rollout is planned for later this year. The program aims to reduce South Korean dependence on AI systems built in the United States or China. About two-thirds of South Koreans have tried AI. Roughly 23 million people regularly use generative AI tools. ChatGPT had 23.45 million Korean users in April, compared with 8.45 million for Gemini. Claude had 2.41 million users. The figures came from the ministry's tender documents. Only about 1.8 million people in South Korea pay for an AI service. Operators must route at least half of all queries through their own certified Korean foundation model. Operators must route another 30% through models built by other Korean companies. This creates an 80% minimum share for domestic models. Foreign models may be used only when the ministry considers them necessary. Foreign-model usage will not receive a subsidy. The government has not set an uptake target. About one-quarter of South Koreans already pay for generative AI. Roughly 2% of Americans do so. The European Commission launched InvestAI in February 2025 to mobilize $232 billion across the bloc. InvestAI includes $23 billion for large computing sites intended to reduce reliance on non-European Union providers. India approved its IndiaAI Mission in March 2024 with about $1.25 billion. India has since made tens of thousands of subsidized graphics processing units available to startups and researchers. India is also funding 20 domestic AI model projects. President Lee Jae Myung's administration has earmarked about $7.2 billion for AI spending in 2026. That amount is three times the previous year's commitment.