S. Korea to Launch Sovereign Cybersecurity AI This Year

South Korea plans to launch a sovereign artificial intelligence model for cybersecurity by the end of this year. This comes amid concerns about digital security, especially after Washington imposed export controls on advanced AI models. The science minister, Bae Kyung-hoon, says they will train an existing sovereign AI model on security data. He notes that the current level of South Korea's sovereign AI is not enough for evolving threats from generative AI. The minister believes South Korea could build a frontier model, similar to Mythos. However, he points out a shortage of graphic processing units for companies developing advanced foundation models. Officials also discussed institutionalizing "white hacking" and preparing legislation for ethical hacking without consent under specific conditions. South Korea is currently ranked third in AI competitiveness, with expectations to reach second place in the next assessment. This development aims to bolster the nation's defense against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.