Physical AI push and resistance to robots

The third flagship megaproject revolves around the South Korean government assigning a “national strategic industry” designation to physical AI—the AI systems that enable robots and self-driving vehicles to interact more autonomously with the real world. The government aims to develop a Korean “general-purpose foundation model” based on a world model to support robots within three years, according to The Chosun Daily.

Hyundai Motor Company has also committed $5.8 billion to build a robot manufacturing facility and AI data center in the Saemangeum region of North Jeolla Province in the southwest, The Chosun Daily reported. The South Korean automaker has already been helping Boston Dynamics—the US robotics company it acquired in 2021—use the South Korean supply chain in scaling up manufacturing to produce 30,000 Atlas humanoid robots each year by 2028.

Similarly, the South Korean government announced it would aim to commercialize humanoid robots in 10 major industries by 2028, along with training 10,000 human workers as “AI robotics specialists” over the next five years, Reuters reported.

However, South Korean workers are not feeling so optimistic about the prospect of competing with more robots. 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, according to The Korea Times.

A state labor mediation committee also granted the union the legal right to strike after suspending the arbitration process, with Hyundai Motor appealing to the union to return to the negotiating table.

Other societal tensions have already arisen around South Korean chipmakers’ burgeoning profits from the AI boom. South Korean government officials have encouraged tech companies to share some of their unprecedented profits with their workers and smaller supplier companies. In May, the South Korean presidential chief of staff for policy even offhandedly proposed a “national dividend” for citizens based on excess tax revenue from South Korean’s companies’ AI-driven profits—though the government later described that as a personal view rather than an official proposal.