The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) has finalized SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT as the three consortia to carry out the "Everyone's AI" project, an artificial intelligence service building initiative for the entire public.

The MSIT announced today (the 28th) that a total of six consortia participated in this open competition, and three operators were selected following written and presentation evaluations.

The written evaluation assessed technological suitability, while the presentation evaluation verified service convenience, user acquisition strategies, and contributions to the ecosystem.

The selected operators will introduce general-purpose AI chatbot services that surpass foreign AI and public AI agents that handle complex public administration procedures on behalf of users.

They will also provide differentiated specialized services in collaboration with startups.

Looking at the development plans for each consortium, the SK Telecom consortium will develop execution-oriented AI that handles everything from planning to execution with a single question.

It will be made accessible not only via apps and web browsers but also through phone calls and text messages, enhancing accessibility for vulnerable digital groups.

It implements a function to connect users to stores or government offices lacking official APIs via automated phone calls.

The Kakao consortium will use the national messenger as an entry point to combine general-purpose chatbots with AI agents.

Together with LG Uplus, it will release a Lite version of the phone AI service within this year.

It plans to quickly distribute and secure specialized services from promising AI companies by linking with an agent marketplace.

The KT consortium will connect various partner channels—such as the Daum portal, Danawa, Musinsa, and Zigbang—with its own telecommunication and media (IPTV) infrastructure.

Through this, it will introduce an integrated AI that supports information search and public services within a single conversation flow.

The government will support the three selected operators with 512 units of NVIDIA Blackwell (B200) graphics processing units (GPUs) this year.

Starting in 2027, the government plans to back the costs required to provide services to the entire public using government budgets.

The MSIT plans to sign agreements with these operators and form a working-level consultative body in September.

Following a beta service phase, the official "Everyone's AI" service is scheduled to launch within this year.

(Photo: Yonhap News)