A Bold Move from South Korea: Free and Unlimited AI for Every Citizen
Originally published in Turkish. Read the original →
With its AI for All program South Korea is offering free and unlimited generative AI to all its citizens. Backed by Nvidia B200 chips the initiative will transform healthcare, tax and housing processes with homegrown AI.
At a time when AI technologies are spreading rapidly on a global scale, South Korea is putting in place a public policy without precedent anywhere in the world. In line with its “AI for All” initiative, the Seoul government is preparing to offer free, token-uncapped and unlimited generative AI services to its entire population.
This strategic step, which aims to break dependence on global tech monopolies and improve citizens' daily quality of life, turns AI from a luxury or subscription service into basic public infrastructure.
From Daily Life to Public Services: What Will AI Change?
The system designed by the South Korean government goes far beyond being a chatbot that just generates text. The AI infrastructure, which will work directly integrated with the state's central IT systems, will act as an active guide for the most critical needs of citizens and businesses:
* Healthcare and Appointments: Citizens will be able to easily schedule hospital and specialist appointments through AI and get personalized initial guidance about their healthcare processes. * Housing and Settlement: In urban planning and home searches, smart assistants that analyze regional data will support tenants and people looking for a home. * Tax Matters and SME Support: Small businesses will be able to check complex tax calculations, legal filings and the government incentives they qualify for within seconds, guided by AI. * Education and Parental Guidance: Equal opportunity will be strengthened by offering parents educational content and curriculum recommendations suited to their children's developmental stages.
The Timeline Is Set: Testing Starts in September
The program's rollout schedule has also been clarified. The Seoul government announced that pilot beta testing will begin as of September 2026 and that the system will be gradually opened to all citizens by the end of the year.
The government publicly named the three major technology consortiums that will bring the project to life. Leading these consortiums are South Korea's two largest telecommunications giants and Kakao, the country's most widespread messaging and digital services platform. This way, the user base and user habits of local platforms will be integrated directly into public services.
Massive Computing Support from the State: 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs
Offering generative AI to the entire population without limits requires enormous compute capacity. Here, the South Korean government is stepping up and taking on a significant share of the technical infrastructure cost.
According to the announced plan, the Seoul government will allocate a total of up to 512 latest-generation Nvidia B200 Blackwell AI accelerators to the three selected technology consortiums. This hardware power will let the local models respond without delay and with high accuracy even under heavy query traffic.
The Goal: "Sovereign AI" Against the US and China
Behind South Korea's move lies a strong geopolitical and technological vision. In a landscape where US-based giants such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, along with Chinese models, dominate the global market, Seoul wants to strengthen homegrown AI suited to its own language, culture and national interests.
Offering a premium AI experience to the public for free is seen as the most effective way to steer users toward local alternatives. Demand for AI in the country is already at record levels: * According to recent research, about a quarter (25 percent) of people living in South Korea use paid subscriptions for AI tools. * The number of citizens actively using free generative AI tools has passed 20 million.
A Record Budget of 7.2 Billion Dollars
President Lee Jae Myung's administration is determined to make South Korea one of the world's leading AI hubs. The government tripled its AI budget for 2026 compared with the previous period, raising it to about 10 trillion won (7.2 billion dollars).
This radical step by South Korea opens the door to a new era in which AI is treated not merely as market competition but as a national public service like electricity, water or the internet. We will all see in the coming period how other governments around the world respond to this strategy.
