{"slug": "south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip", "title": "South Korea bets free AI can loosen ChatGPT’s grip", "summary": "SK Telecom, KT and Kakao announced on Sep 4 at the Korea Press Center in Seoul their plans for South Korea's \"AI for All\" programme, which would give each of the country's 52 million citizens free, unlimited access to generative artificial intelligence with no subscription and no token limit. Most users would access the service through KakaoTalk, which is already installed on 50 million phones, and no government has attempted an initiative of this scale before.", "body_md": "# South Korea bets free AI can loosen ChatGPT’s grip\n\nSK Telecom, KT and Kakao must make domestic use of the tech mainstream before foreign models cement their lead\n\n[SEOUL] On Sep 4, the executives of SK Telecom, KT and Kakao stood together at the Korea Press Center in Seoul to announce their plans for the nation’s “AI for All” programme, in which each of South Korea’s 52 million citizens would receive free, unlimited access to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).\n\nNo subscription. No token limit. For most users, the front door will be KakaoTalk, already on 50 million phones. No government has tried an initiative of this scale before.\n\nAbroad, the meme followed within hours: “South Korea – gave its entire population free AI. Me using VPN.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip", "canonical_source": "https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip", "published_at": "2026-09-10 23:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-10 23:17:12.457461+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "ai-products", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["SK Telecom", "KT", "Kakao", "Korea Press Center", "South Korea", "KakaoTalk", "AI for All"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/south-korea-bets-free-ai-can-loosen-chatgpts-grip.jsonld"}}