By Min Yea-Ji and Kim Young Shin

The BBC published an article titled “Why South Korea is an ideal breeding ground for robots” on Dec. 5 and said that Korea is the ideal breeding ground and consumer market for advanced innovation in the field of robotics.

According to the BBC, animism, a belief that animals and objects have souls and spirits, has helped improve Korea’s robot technologies. “In this way, ancient spirituality may have primed the Korean people to be more culturally and socially open-minded to autonomous devices than perhaps Westerner,” said the BBC.

The BBC added that, “While some people may feel anxious that robots will not only steal all their jobs, but also develop a superior and unstoppable intelligence, stage a coup and, in a Frankenstein-like fate, destroy the very people who created them, Koreans just aren’t that panicked.”

It also said that it was necessary for Koreans to develop innovative technologies and a highly skilled workforce in order to ensure their economic revival after the Korean War. It predicted that in Korea, robots with AI will replace an aging workforce and take care of defending the border with North Korea. South Korean guards along the border are already aided by the SGR-A1 system of robotic sentry guns.

The BBC also mentioned Korean robots like the one at the airport that cleans and gives information to visitors, Methos-2, the world’s first manned bipedal robot. It also mentioned the humanoid robot DRC-HUBO. It said, “In Incheon, where the robot guides are about to finish their pilot program, the airport is preparing to welcome some of them as full-time workers in early 2018. So if you happen to find yourself at ICN, keep an eye out for a merry, if mechanical, guide, who will be more than happy to show you around.”

jesimin@korea.kr