Presidential Chief of Staff for Policy says the state must lay foundations for self-sustaining AI ecosystem

Presidential Chief of Staff for Policy Kim Yong-beom said Tuesday that South Korea must lay the foundations for a self-sustaining AI ecosystem, treating AI as a "basic right." The government proposed a free service called "Everyone's AI" to provide access to domestically developed AI services and develop AI agents for public services, aiming to build demand, data, and trust while narrowing AI usage disparities.

The government must lay the grounds for the spread of AI across sectors, approaching the technology as a "basic right," Presidential Chief of Staff for Policy Kim Yong-beom said Tuesday. Writing on his Facebook page, Kim said the artificial intelligence market is still not fully unlocked, and applications in hospitals, schools and public administration remain elusive. Kim cited conflicting stakes as the cause: hospitals wait for regulations to be eased, regulators wait for successful precedents while companies wait for clear demand, resulting in collective inaction that can prevent the market from emerging. "The state should help the private sector overcome barriers it cannot cross alone, rather than replace it," Kim said. "Its role is to connect fragmented conditions, absorb early-stage risks and create the trust and demand needed for companies to invest." In response to these obstacles, the government has proposed a free service it calls "Everyone’s AI." It has two main components: Firstly, to provide free access to domestically developed AI services and encourage users to use Korean platforms rather than foreign ones. The other is to develop AI agents that can find and apply for public services on the user's behalf, while opening public data for private-sector use. Kim said the free service is intended to embed AI in daily life and build demand and data. Public-sector agents, meanwhile, are meant to create use cases and trust, allowing companies to develop new services on that foundation. "The goal is a self-sustaining cycle in which public-sector use improves AI systems, better systems expand the market and the market generates more data," he said. Kim noted the project also seeks to narrow disparities between people who can effectively use AI and those who cannot, treating access to the technology as part of an "AI basic society." However, he cautioned that state coordination could turn into lopsided support for companies that have already been selected as part of the project. He argued that "the initiative must remain open to new participants, reassess performance and require self-reliance plans from the outset." "The state should not be the biggest player on the field but the moderator behind its design," Kim said. shwang9@heraldcorp.com