South Korea Prepares Sovereign AI for Cyber Security, GPUs Still Short

South Korea is targeting the launch of a sovereign artificial intelligence or AI model specifically for cybersecurity by the end of 2026. The model is prepared to face the ever-growing threats in the digital space.

Korea JoongAng Daily quoted Thursday, July 16, saying the plan was conveyed by Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon in a policy briefing at the Blue House, Thursday. The meeting was chaired by President Lee Jae Myung.

"We encourage the creation of a special AI model for cybersecurity this year by training existing sovereign AI models using security-related data," Bae said.

Sovereign AI in this context is an AI model developed domestically.

The plan comes after the United States imposed export restrictions on a number of advanced AI models. One of them is Anthropic's Mythos 5 which has the ability to detect security gaps.

Bae acknowledged that South Korea's current sovereign AI capabilities are not enough to deal with the growing cyber threat with the help of generative AI.

In the long term, he said South Korea needs to study the development of an AI model that is ahead of the curve with the equivalent capabilities of Mythos.

"In my opinion, Korea can make it too," Bae said.

However, the plan is still facing limitations in the supply of graphics processing units or GPUs. These devices are the main components for training AI models on a large scale.

Bae said the number of GPUs that his ministry could provide to basic AI model development companies was still insufficient. He asked for additional budget support from the government.

During the same meeting, the government also discussed the rules of white hat hacking. This practice is usually done legally with the consent of the system owner to find security loopholes.

The Ministry of Science is preparing a legal basis that in certain conditions can allow security testing of company systems without prior approval.

The draft is not yet in force and is still being prepared to detect vulnerabilities in certain conditions.

A ministry official said preparations for the rules were still underway.

Bae also said South Korea was in third place in the AI competitiveness ranking compiled by international institutions. He predicted that the country's position could rise to second place in the next assessment in August.