A total of 6 companies or consortia, including SK Telecom, Kakao and KT, have joined the government's AI public service project dubbed "AI for All".

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Aug. 18 it received 6 proposals in a tender for companies to participate in the AI for All project.

The lead organisations are SKT, MKD, ESTsoft, Xenon, Kakao and KT.

The SKT consortium includes 19 organisations, including Goodoc, Nota, the Korea Senior Citizens Association Support Center, Liner, Soundable Health Korea, Selectstar, Shinhan Card, SK Broadband, Elice Group, Channel Corporation, T Map Mobility and Hana Card.

The ESTsoft consortium includes Megazone, Bdraft, SureSoftTech, Wiseneut, EastAid, Polaris Office and the Korea Productivity Center.

Kakao formed a consortium with Day1 Company, Lunit, Seoul National University Hospital, Shinhan Bank, LG Management Development Institute AI Research Institute, LG CNS, LG Uplus, LG Electronics, Kakao Enterprise, CrowdWorks and FuriosaAI.

The KT consortium includes Daum, DeepSearch, RableUp, Rebellions, Mathpresso, Motif Technologies, Musinsa, Vessel AI Korea, BC Card, Saltlux, ActionPower, Upstage, NC AI, Zigbang, ConnectWave and EBS.

MKD and Xenon applied alone without separate participating organisations.

The ministry plans to select operators by the end of this month after reviewing submitted documents for suitability, written evaluations and presentation evaluations. After selection, it will start the service within the year following an agreement and a beta service.