[Lee Goo-soon’s Slow Steps] If AI Is Given Away for Free, Who Will Build the Industry?

Investors are reportedly demanding that Anthropic, the biggest potential IPO in the 2026 global market, disclose concrete revenue figures, such as revenue per token and revenue per gigawatt (GW) of computing power. They appear unwilling to make investment decisions based on data such as the number of users and model performance that Anthropic provides. After pouring enormous sums into the company over the past five years, investors are asking it to calculate returns against costs precisely. The news clearly shows that artificial intelligence (AI) has moved beyond the laboratory and established itself as a massive industry evaluated by the market.
Markets are unsentimental. They strip away flashy claims about hundreds of millions of users and performance powerful enough to frighten governments. Instead, they want to examine the substance: how much it costs to provide a service and how much revenue it generates.
That is understandable, because more users are not necessarily an unqualified benefit for an AI business. The more questions and answers there are, the more GPUs run, generating electricity and data-center costs. The market’s logic is simple: costs rise along with the number of users, so companies must earn even more money.

The government plans to launch “AI for Everyone” this year, allowing the entire population to use it free of charge. SKT, Kakao, and KT will operate the service. Everyone will be able to use a basic AI chatbot and an AI assistant that connects to public services at no cost. A new basic right is emerging in the AI era.
It is welcome and appreciated. Yet I also have some concerns.
If a government-led, free AI service provided by leading conglomerates is made available nationwide, can an AI market emerge in Korea? If free “AI for Everyone” becomes the benchmark for prices in Korea’s AI market, can an AI industry that exceeds that benchmark put down roots? Will startups emerge with the ambition of developing and monetizing AI services that outperform “AI for Everyone” and surpass the brands of major conglomerates?
Free “AI for Everyone” is welcome and appreciated because it provides Koreans with a basic right to AI access. But I wonder whether it could create a barrier that will be difficult for the AI industry to overcome. Could it be narrowing the path for Korean AI startups that have not secured a market in which to be evaluated by consumers in Korea to enter the global AI market, where investors ask about revenue relative to costs?
The government has also announced a policy to allow specialized AI services offered through “AI for Everyone” to be monetized, as long as doing so does not undermine the public interest.
The policy criteria are not clear. The government has laid out a clear welfare policy centered on the basic right to AI, but it has yet to establish a clear industrial policy for growing the AI market.
I hope the government will present a blueprint for an AI market capable of nurturing Korea’s AI industry as another pillar of its welfare policy based on free “AI for Everyone.” In principle, companies should be the ones to design the market. However, since the government has created a price barrier through a free service, it should also define the AI market beyond that barrier.
The government must draw a clear line defining which services “AI for Everyone” will provide free of charge and where private companies can freely set prices and compete without being crowded out by the government’s free services. Only then can a Korean AI (K-AI) ecosystem emerge—one that does not depend on participation in government-led AI projects and can survive and grow without government operating funds.
I also hope the public sector will serve as a catalyst for forming a Korean AI market. Since a market of 50 million consumers has been given a price barrier in the form of free AI, public institutions should at least step forward as customers that purchase and use Korean AI companies’ products and services at fair market prices.
I hope the government does not make the mistake of focusing solely on the welfare policy of guaranteeing a basic right to AI for everyone while neglecting industrial policies that would grow the AI market and ecosystem. True welfare should not end with free government AI services; it should also include building a Korean AI (K-AI) industry that the entire world envies.

[email protected] Lee Goo-soon Reporter