S. Korea's Sovereign AI for Cybersecurity by Year-End

South Korea plans to launch a sovereign artificial intelligence model for cybersecurity by the end of this year. This initiative comes as a response to growing digital security threats. The science minister, Bae Kyung-hoon, explained they will train an existing sovereign AI model using security-related data. What's interesting is that this move follows concerns after Washington imposed export controls on advanced AI models, including one specializing in vulnerability detection. The minister noted that South Korea's current sovereign AI isn't strong enough for evolving threats, suggesting the country might need to develop a frontier model in the long term. Officials also discussed legalizing "white hacking" to identify system vulnerabilities. The science ministry is preparing legislation to allow ethical hacking on companies without their consent under specific conditions. South Korea currently ranks third in AI competitiveness and aims to reach second place. This development could significantly enhance the nation's digital defense capabilities.