South Korea's Minister of Science and ICT, Lee Jong-ho, announced on Thursday that the country plans to launch a sovereign artificial intelligence model dedicated to cybersecurity by the end of this year to address growing security threats in the digital realm.

This announcement comes amid heightened global focus on digital security, following recent export controls imposed by the United States on advanced AI models, including those specialized in vulnerability detection.

The minister stated that efforts are underway to develop this cybersecurity-focused AI model by training the existing sovereign AI infrastructure to handle security-related data within the current year.

He noted that South Korea's current sovereign AI capabilities are insufficient to counter the evolving cybersecurity threats posed by generative AI, and reiterated a previous call for the nation to consider developing a cutting-edge model on par with leading international counterparts in the long term.

During the policy briefing, officials also discussed institutionalizing "white-hat hacking" activities, which involve legally penetrating computer systems with owner consent to identify security weaknesses.

Officials from the Ministry of Science and ICT added that they are preparing legislation to provide a legal basis for ethical hacking activities, including vulnerability testing on companies under specific conditions without necessarily requiring their prior consent.