South Korea's Blue House Protests Bloomberg's AI Profit Distribution Report

The Blue House has confirmed that it sent an official letter to Bloomberg protesting the news agency's interpretation of Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom's proposal for a 'citizen dividend' as a distribution of 'excess profits' from artificial intelligence (AI) companies.

In the letter sent the previous day, the Blue House expressed serious concerns about how Bloomberg reported Kim's personal social media post.

The Blue House stated that Bloomberg's 'inaccurate framing' has caused 'substantial confusion in the market' and has had a clearly negative impact on investor sentiment. It demanded that Bloomberg acknowledge this and issue a formal apology for the adverse effects on the market.

The Blue House clarified that Kim's remarks were about how to allocate 'excess tax revenue' from corporate taxes, not about distributing 'excess profits' from companies, which it described as a 'serious misunderstanding.'

The Blue House requested a correction of Bloomberg's report, which suggested that Kim initially spoke about profit distribution and later clarified his comments. However, Bloomberg has yet to respond to the Blue House's request.

In the letter, the Blue House emphasized that Kim has never advocated for the redistribution of corporate profits, proposed a windfall tax on companies, or suggested directly transferring private sector profits.

Earlier, on May 12, Kim mentioned in a Facebook post that 'the fruits of the AI infrastructure era are not solely the result of specific companies' and referred to the 'citizen dividend system' to return these benefits to the public. The post included a suggestion to consider how to utilize any excess tax revenue that may arise.

Bloomberg previously reported Kim's comments under the headline 'South Korea Floats Citizen Dividend Using AI Profits.'