South Korea Plans Free Homegrown AI Chatbot by Year-End

South Korea is seeking to strengthen its domestic artificial intelligence ecosystem as services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominate the global consumer market. The Ministry of Science and ICT, or MSIT, views a homegrown platform as a way to reduce reliance on foreign technology while expanding public access to generative AI. Its “AI for Everyone” initiative is also intended to generate demand and usage data that could support local model developers, application providers and other AI businesses.

MSIT plans to launch a free, domestically developed general-purpose AI chatbot and agent service by the end of 2026. The platform is expected initially to handle common queries and assist users with routine tasks, before expanding into personalized functions such as asset management and learning support. The ministry has not disclosed a budget, named participating companies or set a specific launch date, leaving key details about the system’s models, data governance and operating structure to be announced.