4 hours ago
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public sector
Tender calls for providers to power free service with local LLMs, government to supply some GPUs
South Korea’s government has posted a tender seeking suppliers to build a universal basic AI chatbot, and an AI agent for government services.
The “AI for everyone” plan calls for private entities to create and operate the AI systems under contracts that expire in the year 2031. Bid documents reveal that Seoul will provide up to 256 Nvidia B200 GPUs to successful bidders. Winners must match government funding.
The aim of the policy is to ensure that every resident of South Korea can access a free-to-use quality AI chatbot, a tool Seoul has decided no local should be without. The tender also calls for creation of an agentic system that allows citizens to interact with government services.
South Korea’s government wants to ensure that residents can always access a locally hosted and operated service, to reduce reliance on overseas providers and ensure that AI services reflect local culture.
Successful bidders must therefore use locally developed AI models as the foundation for the services.
Bidders have until August 11th to file their proposals. South Korean media reports suggest local tech giants Kakao, Naver, SK Telecom, and LG are all keen to participate.
The tender landed just weeks after the US government compelled Anthropic to prohibit all foreign nationals from accessing its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models. Because Anthropic has no idea which passports its US-based users hold, it was unable to comply and therefore took both models online.
The incident sparked increased interest in sovereign AI capabilities that would mean netizens in each country can’t be cut off from AI services by policy decisions made abroad.
South Korea’s lawmakers are surely aware that funding free local AI services will improve the nation’s sovereign capabilities. They also likely recognize that the country is fortunate to have a cohort of tech companies capable of doing the job. Messaging service Kakao is an equivalent to WhatsApp, while Naver is a Google analogue. Past policy decisions have those companies grow: South Korea has restricted Google’s ability to run a mapping service on national security grounds, leaving mapping apps from Naver and Kakao vastly superior and making their other services more attractive. ®
English (US) ·