At some point in the near future, AI will be ubiquitous, embedded in all the tools we use and all the tools that will no longer need us to be used. It will solve problems faster than we can, in ways we won’t always understand. It will reshape our economy and, indeed, our society more than we currently realize. The biggest open question is who will benefit? Will the rich just get richer, or will a new class of elites – possibly AI itself – emerge?
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| Is "AI for All" an idea whose time has come, or just a slogan? Credit: Microsoft Designer |
If you’re waiting for our government to develop an AI strategy, don’t hold your breath. Congress can’t even pass a budget, much less navigate the technological future, and the Administration dithers between “hands-off” (so as not to stifle innovation, don’t you know?) and terror at everything being victimized by malevolent (or indifferent) AI.
Some
governments are trying to be more proactive.
Jiyoung
Sohn of The Wall Street Journal recently
profiled South Korea’s “AI for All” initiative. She writes: “South Korea
plans to give its entire population free access to generative AI services, the
first major state-led offering treating the technology akin to a public
utility.” The goal is partly to encourage AI literacy among the population, and
partly to avoid relying on AI models from China or the U.S.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) issued a task force report on the subject last year, causing President Lee Jae Myung to warn: “A situation may arise where not using AI is akin to not mastering arithmetic or Hangul…Even neighborhood aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers, and anyone should be able to use AI.”
The
initiative reflects the country’s typically fast technological adoption. A 2025
MSIT survey found that two-thirds of South Korea’s population used AI services,
and Ms. Sohn reports that about a quarter of the population is paying for generative
AI, versus 2% in the U.S.
The effort
was announced
last month by MSIT. "As one's
ability to use AI increasingly determines individual competitiveness, ensuring
that the AI divide does not lead to social and economic divides has become an
urgent task of our time," said MSIT. “There are also concerns that, since
the free versions of current foreign AI platforms have usage limits, they may
become vulnerable to future policy changes by global big-tech companies, such
as subscription fee hikes or service discontinuation."
The AI tools will be linked directly to government systems and allow South Koreans to book doctor’s appointments, receive help with apartment hunting or get tax advice. Small businesses will be able to tabulate their taxes and check their eligibility for government-support programs, and parents will receive suggested educational content for their children.
Americans
can only dream of such tools.
A beta
service is supposed to launch in September, but MSIT vows that, starting in
2027, the government “will cover the costs required to provide the service to
all citizens through the national budget." It is unclear exactly how much
that will cost, but Ms. Sohn notes that the current administration has set
aside the equivalent of $7.2 billion for AI spending in 2026, tripling 2025’s
spending. 2027’s number should be interesting, and may illustrate South Korea’s
true commitment.
South Korea is not the only country making bold “AI for All” promises. Earlier this summer Canada released its national AI strategy of AI for All. The strategy says: “For Canadians to benefit from AI, they must first learn to use it. To use it, they need to trust it.” It asserts:
For Canada to thrive in the era of AI, Canadians need to trust in its promise. Trust that they will share in its benefits and that it will be developed, adopted, and governed in ways that reflect our shared values. Trust is the north star of this strategy. Prosperity and sovereignty in this era belong to nations that can leverage trust to adopt, build, and govern AI on their own terms.
Healthcare
is central to the strategy: “Throughout the Strategy, the government’s focus on
healthcare is clear as a first-priority sector. The Strategy contemplates
establishing a $100 million Health Sector Data Space focusing on standardizing
healthcare datasets, and launching the AI Missions Program with an inaugural
$200 million initial investment focused on advancing AI adoption in the
healthcare sector.”
However, the
strategy is short on concrete actions, simply promising:
“Over the next five years, this strategy will introduce new legislation,
investments, and programs that ensure AI is adopted responsibly, in a way that
truly serves all Canadians – building trust, expanding opportunities,
and reinforcing control of our sovereignty.”
Nice words,
but instead of achieving “AI for AI,” it hopes “to increase AI adoption from
just over 12% to 60% by 2034.” That’s not going to put Canada in the AI
forefront.
On the
other hand, in May the Government of Malta and OpenAI announced a
partnership to give all Maltese citizens ChatGPT Plus. The first step is for
interested citizens to take a course “designed to help people understand what
AI is, what it can and can’t do, and how to use it responsibly at home and work,”
after which they can access ChatGPT Plus for a year at no cost. The course is
online, self-paced, and is estimated to take two hours to complete.
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| Credit: OpenAI |
South
Korea, for one, got the message, although perhaps not in the way OpenAI might
have hoped.
As the
world’s richest country, and the presumptive leader in AI as well, you’d think
that “AI for All” would be a strategy that the U.S. would quickly embrace. But
we don’t do anything for all – not health care, not Social Security, not even
taxes. Unfortunately, in an AI world, things are going to move faster than we
are used to acting, so our typical laissez-faire strategy isn’t going to suffice.
“Medicare
for all” is a good sound bite, but “AI for All” may actually be more urgent.
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