Physical AI push and robot resistance
The third major megaproject revolves around the South Korean government granting “national strategic industry” designation to physical AI – AI systems that enable robots and self-driving vehicles to interact more autonomously with the real world. According to The Chosun Daily, the government aims to develop a Korean “general purpose foundation model” based on world models to support robots within three years.
Hyundai Motor Co. has committed $5.8 billion to build a robot manufacturing facility and AI data center in the Saemjeum area of North Jeolla province in the southwest, The Chosun Daily reports. The South Korean automaker is already helping Boston Dynamics – the American robotics company it acquired in 2021 – use its South Korean supply chain to scale up manufacturing to produce 30,000 Atlas humanoid robots each year by 2028.
Similarly, the South Korean government announced that it aims to commercialize humanoid robots in 10 major industries by 2028, as well as train 10,000 human workers as “AI robotics experts” over the next five years, Reuters reported.
However, South Korean workers are not feeling so optimistic about the prospect of competing with more robots. According to The Korea Times, on June 25, Hyundai Motor’s labor union overwhelmingly approved a potential strike as it negotiated with the South Korean automaker about profit-sharing and job protections to offset the company’s planned deployment of Atlas humanoid robots.
After a state labor arbitration committee suspended the arbitration process that also gave the union the legal right to strike, Hyundai Motor appealed to the union to return to the negotiating table.
The AI boom has already created other social tensions over rising profits for South Korean chipmakers. South Korean government officials have encouraged tech companies to share some of their unprecedented profits with their employees and smaller supplier companies. In May, the chief of the South Korean presidential policy staff also unexpectedly proposed a “national dividend” for citizens based on additional tax revenue from South Korean companies’ AI-driven profits – though the government later described this as a personal idea rather than an official proposal.
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