{"slug": "why-south-korea-is-racing-to-build-a-sovereign-ai-model-for-cybersecurity", "title": "Why South Korea is racing to build a sovereign AI model for cybersecurity", "summary": "South Korea plans to develop its own cybersecurity-focused AI model by the end of 2025 after US export restrictions on advanced AI systems exposed risks of relying on foreign technology. Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon announced the initiative, which is part of a broader push for AI sovereignty among nations including Japan, Britain, and Canada. Analysts note that building a frontier model would require overcoming gaps in AI software, computing capacity, and training.", "body_md": "# Why South Korea is racing to build a sovereign AI model for cybersecurity\n\nFears over access to foreign AI models have accelerated Seoul’s push to control the systems used to defend critical infrastructure\n\n[South Korea](https://www.scmp.com/topics/south-korea?module=inline&pgtype=article)plans to develop its own cybersecurity-focused\n\n[artificial intelligence](https://www.scmp.com/topics/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&pgtype=article)model by the end of this year, after a brief US clampdown on advanced systems exposed the risks of relying on foreign technology for national cyber defence.\n\nBut Seoul’s more ambitious longer-term idea of building a frontier model capable of competing with the world’s most advanced systems would require it to overcome a persistent gap in AI software, computing capacity and large-scale training, analysts said.\n\nThe initiative reflects a broader push for “AI sovereignty”, with governments in Japan, Britain, Canada and across the European Union investing in domestic models and computing infrastructure to reduce their reliance on foreign providers.\n\nScience and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon unveiled the plan on Thursday after Washington imposed new export restrictions on several advanced AI models, including Anthropic’s Mythos 5.\n\n[Lee Jae Myung](https://www.scmp.com/topics/lee-jae-myung?module=inline&pgtype=article).\n\nBae warned that AI-powered cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated.\n\n“AI can be used to identify security vulnerabilities and exploit them with ease, so we need to prepare our defences accordingly,” he said.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-south-korea-is-racing-to-build-a-sovereign-ai-model-for-cybersecurity", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3360901/why-south-korea-racing-build-sovereign-ai-model-cybersecurity?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-07-17 05:58:33+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-17 06:05:49.083555+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-safety", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["South Korea", "Bae Kyung-hoon", "Anthropic", "Mythos 5", "United States", "Japan", "Britain", "Canada"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-south-korea-is-racing-to-build-a-sovereign-ai-model-for-cybersecurity", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-south-korea-is-racing-to-build-a-sovereign-ai-model-for-cybersecurity.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-south-korea-is-racing-to-build-a-sovereign-ai-model-for-cybersecurity.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-south-korea-is-racing-to-build-a-sovereign-ai-model-for-cybersecurity.jsonld"}}