South Korea building sovereign cybersecurity AI after US Mythos export controls

South Korea will launch a sovereign AI model specializing in cybersecurity by the end of 2026, Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon announced Thursday, in response to US export controls on advanced AI models like Anthropic's Mythos 5. The move aims to address growing digital security threats and elevate South Korea's AI competitiveness from third to second place globally.

S. Korea to launch sovereign AI for cybersecurity this year: science minister 11:58 July 16, 2026 All News https://en.yna.co.kr/news SEOUL, July 16 Yonhap -- South Korea will launch a sovereign artificial intelligence AI model specializing in cybersecurity by the year's end to respond to growing security threats in the digital space, the science minister said Thursday. Minister Bae Kyung-hoon's comments come amid growing concerns over digital security after Washington abruptly imposed export controls on its advanced AI models, including Anthropic's Mythos 5, which specializes in vulnerability detection. "We are pushing to create an AI model specializing in cybersecurity within this year by training our existing sovereign AI model on security-related data," Bae said during a policy briefing held in Cheong Wa Dae, presided over by President Lee Jae Myung. The minister noted that the current level of South Korea's sovereign AI is not enough to respond to evolving cybersecurity threats helped by generative AI, reaffirming his previous calls that the country should review developing a frontier model, on par with Mythos, in the long run. During the briefing, officials also discussed ways to institutionalize "white hacking," or legally breaking into computer systems under the owner's consent to identify vulnerabilities. The science ministry is making preparations for legislation that would provide legal grounds to perform ethical hacking on companies without their consent for vulnerability detection under certain conditions, a science ministry official said. South Korea was ranked third in terms of AI competitiveness from an international ranking agency, Bae added, as he declared his bid to elevate South Korea one rank higher, to second place. fairydust@yna.co.kr END Keywords - U.S. Pacific Fleet vice admiral says 'extremely pleased' with S. Korean Navy's RIMPAC performance - Singer-actress Choi Soo-young says wanted to portray unlikely villain in 'Okay Madam 2' - News Focus Can 'Hope' bring new hope to S. Korea's struggling film industry? - Han Kang calls for change of course in 'age of hate' - 'Hope' opens strong in S. Korea, selling over 330,000 tickets - LEAD Exports up 54 pct in first 10 days of July on strong chip shipments - Singer-actress Choi Soo-young says wanted to portray unlikely villain in 'Okay Madam 2' - Homeplus temporarily closes outlets starting Monday - News Focus Can 'Hope' bring new hope to S. Korea's struggling film industry? - 3rd LD Hourly minimum wage set at 10,700 won for 2027, up 3.7 pct from this year - Tougher U.S. student visa rule to affect over 13,000 S. Koreans in America - N. Korea warns of 'chain of countermeasures' over U.S.-led RIMPAC exercise - Seoul battered with heavy rains, key road closed - N.K. leader meets with China's top political adviser in Pyongyang - S. Korea's exports of K-pop albums hit record high of US$257.48 mln in H1 Most Viewed More https://en.yna.co.kr/mostviewed/index