The 'All of Us AI' project, aimed at enabling all citizens to use AI as easily as Hangul, has officially launched. With mobile carriers, the 'national messenger' Kakao, Eastsoft (famous for Korea's top vaccine app 'Allyak'), and others submitting their bids, attention turns to which contender will emerge victorious.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 19th, six consortiums participated in the 'All of Us AI' project, with submissions closing at 5 p.m. the previous day: SK Telecom, KT, Kakao, Eastsoft, Xenon, and MKD. Xenon and MKD submitted bids independently, while the remaining four consortiums formed alliances across three major areas: services, AI models, and infrastructure.
The most notable participant is the Kakao consortium. This project aims to launch an AI chatbot service for all citizens by year-end, followed by a "one person, one AI agent" rollout starting next year. Therefore, participation from service companies easily accessible to the general public is essential.
While Naver, one of Korea's two major platforms, has expressed its intention not to participate, industry focus centers on which partner Kakao will choose. Kakao has joined forces with four LG group affiliates: LG Uplus, LG AI Research Institute, LG Electronics, and LG CNS. Considering the core values of 'All of Us AI'—'universal accessibility' and 'service scalability'—the consortium is evaluated as highly competitive, combining KakaoTalk's overwhelming public reach, LG Uplus' communication network, LG AI Research Institute's AI models, Furius AI's NPU, Lunit and Seoul National University Hospital's public healthcare use cases, and more.
For Kakao, this project presents a prime opportunity to demonstrate its technical capabilities and restore its self-esteem. Last year, Kakao was eliminated in the first round of the national AI foundation model development project ('Dokpamo'), raising doubts about its proprietary AI technology. Although Kakao opted for an 'orchestration' strategy (leveraging diverse AI tools) over a 'sovereign' approach (developing independent models), the growing U.S. trend of treating frontier AI as national assets has heightened the need to secure its own models. The presence of its self-developed chatbot 'Kanana' remains minimal, necessitating change. As the lead organizer, Kakao plans to oversee the consortium, combining LG's technical expertise with the specialized strengths of various partner companies to deliver a high-quality AI service for all citizens.
The momentum of SK Telecom and KT, Korea's top two mobile carriers, is no less formidable. SK Telecom owns its proprietary AI model 'A.' (A-dot), which advanced to the third round of the Dokpamo project, and last month established a dedicated subsidiary for AI data centers, 'SK Hyper,' with plans to open a 5-gigawatt (GW) AI data center by 2029. SKT's position as Korea's largest telecom operator with approximately 22.5 million subscribers also positively supports the expansion of its AI services.
KT has integrated participants from the Dokpamo project into its consortium to offset its lack of prior Dokpamo experience. It has partnered with Upstage (which reached the third round of Dokpamo), Motif (a select team), and NC AI. On the service side, it includes portal 'Daum' and fashion e-commerce platform Musinsa; for infrastructure, it incorporates domestic AI semiconductor firm 'Rebellion.' KT's proprietary AI model 'Mideum' and its mobile network are also key advantages.
in TECH
