Recently, the country’s service sector has increasingly adopted robots -- from simple coffee making to using robotic systems for dental implant surgery, even opticians use robots for 3D scanning and making personalized glasses frames. In the near future, these machines will be applied to various sectors beyond the manufacturing and service industries, according to Rainbow Robotics CEO Lee Jung-ho, who spoke at The Korea Herald Biz Forum held at Four Seasons Hotel, Wednesday. Showcasing t

Virtual humans, or digital representations of human beings, have already started to take over human jobs, and are now on their way to strengthen their presence in the virtual world, according to Locus-X CEO Baek Seung-yeop. “In the early stages of virtual humans, they tried to be more ‘human-like.’ But now, they aim to go ‘beyond human’ and show great potential in the virtual world,” said Baek during his speech at The Korea Herald Biz Forum 2022 held at the

Mammals survived because their social ability to get information from other beings evolved. An animal cub may not know that a volcano has erupted, but once it sees other animals run in fear, it feels their fear and knows that it has to run with them to survive. Human children start to acquire social intelligence by reading non-linguistic signs such as other humans’ facial expressions, gestures and actions, in addition to learning language. Human brains have the ability to understand and em

A top executive of Kakao Corp. offered to step down Wednesday to take responsibility for the recent disruption of the company's mobile messenger KakaoTalk and other related services. The announcement by Kakao's co-CEO Namkoong Whon came as Kakao services, ranging from KakaoTalk to online banking and ride-hailing services, have resumed complete operation. Earlier in the day, SK C&C, which hosts Kakao's data servers, started to fully supply electric power to Kakao's disrupt

CHANGWON -- General Motors Co. said Wednesday it is targeting to transform its South Korean operations into a "profitable and sustainable business" next year by increasing exports of next-generation vehicles. GM Korea Co. reported net losses for eight consecutive years through 2021 and expects losses to narrow further this year. To help achieve a turnaround, GM Korea plans to produce a next-generation crossover utility vehicle (CUV) model in its Changwon plant, about 300 kilometers sou

POSCO Holdings Inc., the holding firm of South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO, on Wednesday said that its third-quarter operating profit dropped 71 percent as some of its steel-processing facilities remain shuttered after a typhoon. Its operating income stood at 900 billion won ($633 million) in the July-September period, compared with an operating profit of 3.1 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The operating profit was 17.8 percent lower than the average estima

SK C&C, which hosts a data center for Kakao Corp., said Wednesday it has started to fully supply electric power to the tech firm's disrupted servers, a move that could lead to a full normalization of Kakao services. "The power supply rate reached 100 percent at around 5 a.m.," an SK C&C official said. A fire at Kakao's data center near Seoul on Saturday caused the worst server outage ever for South Korea's dominant messenger and its internet portal Daum. The fire

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo visited a joint venture between the group‘s battery making affiliate and U.S. carmaker General Motors Co. in Ohio, industrial sources said Tuesday. 　 　Koo has recently toured the No. 1 plant of Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution Ltd. that hived off from LG Chem last year, according to the sources. 　 　Ultium Cells’ No. 1 plant is set to produce EV batteries during the second half of the year, with two more plants under c

SMEs and Startups Minister Lee Young said on Tuesday that it plans to nurture Comeup, the ministry's startup accelerator program, as one of the top five startup events globally in five years. “Ramping up engagement from private sectors, we plan to place Comeup as the world’s fifth largest startup event in five years,” said Lee during a press conference at Maru 100 in southern Seoul. Lee added the government will make room for startup companies to enter global markets more

Forum explores evolving interaction between humans and technology, and future dynamics of the two

Popular South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk lost some 2 million users following an outage which began Saturday and lasted hours, industry tracker data showed. The number of KakaoTalk users was estimated at 39.05 million on Sunday, down 2.07 million from Friday when the figure stood at 41.12 million, according to an analysis by industry tracker WiseApp on Monday. But as the country’s most popular messaging app suffered a loss of users in the wake of the app's longest outage to date si

Simmering tensions likely to lead to legal disputes over damage compensation

Experts say Washington's ultimate goal is weakening Bejing's chip productivity, especially advanced chips

South Korean auto parts and mobility solutions provider Hyundai Mobis said Tuesday that it has begun mass-producing chassis modules for Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles, adding another global automaker to its client list. Mobis begun manufacturing its chassis module, a core automotive part that controls a vehicle’s stability while driving, from the third quarter at a newly established plant dedicated for Mercedes cars in Alabama in the US. A total of four electrified SUVs by the German ca

South Korea asked the Netherlands on Tuesday to make greater investments and enhance bilateral cooperation in semiconductors and such advanced industry fields as hydrogen and nuclear power generation, Seoul's industry ministry said. Deputy Trade Minister Jeong Dae-jin made the request during a meeting with Hanneke Schuiling, the Dutch vice minister for foreign economic relations, in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "Chung noted that the South Korean gover