▲ Officials from the Ministry of Science and ICT and local tech companies pose for a photo at a roundtable event on the government-led artificial intelligence (AI) service project held in central Seoul, in this file photo taken Sept. 4, 2026, and provided by the ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- Three consortia led by South Korean tech companies will unveil their artificial intelligence (AI) services developed under a government-led project within this month to provide all citizens with access to AI, government and industry sources said Thursday.

The three teams -- led by SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and Kakao Corp., respectively -- are set to launch a closed beta version of their AI services sometime in October, the sources added.

The government's "AI for All" project unveiled in July came amid efforts to lower South Korea's dependence on foreign AI models and boost the domestic AI sector. Developers are required to use domestic AI models for at least 50 percent of the offered AI services, with government funding and graphic processing unit (GPU) support.

Developers have set a monthly active user target of 5 million for their envisioned services, with Kakao vowing to expand the figure to 10 million by 2027 and 30 million by 2030.

South Korea plans to inject an additional 250 billion won (US$184.37 million), starting next year, to further advance the services, which include costs to secure some 2,000 GPUs.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, some 23 million people in South Korea have used generative AI models so far, with most of the generative AI users, or 21 million, using free lower-tier models.

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