All of that effort could be paying off. The identical index ranked South Korea as having the third largest variety of notable AI fashions on the earth, primarily based on standards similar to state-of-the-art developments or excessive quotation charges. For a lot of small nations like South Korea, AI is an opportunity to punch above their weight.
The blind spots
However that single-mindedness can crowd out essential reflection on AI’s broader societal impacts. “As a result of the nationwide agenda on AI prioritizes financial growth,” says Jeon, the professor of science and expertise coverage, “there isn’t a lot reflection on the social, political, moral dimensions of the expertise.” In 2025, the South Korean authorities confronted a fierce backlash for rolling out AI textbooks riddled with factual inaccuracies and knowledge privateness dangers with out testing them first in a pilot program to guage how they have an effect on scholar studying.
And regardless of their optimism, South Koreans are nonetheless frightened that AI might displace them from their jobs. After Hyundai introduced in January that it’s going to deploy Atlas humanoid robots throughout its automobile factories, the Hyundai Motor Group union protested vehemently. “With out labor-management settlement, not a single robotic utilizing new expertise will likely be allowed to enter the office,” the union stated. Sixty-four p.c of South Koreans worry AI might displace human labor and exacerbate inequality, though 52% imagine it might additionally enhance productiveness.
On a current Friday night time within the Seoul Central Market, I went out with my cousins to a pocha, a late-night restaurant that serves fish desserts stacked in neat pyramids. As we clinked our cups of soju minimize with beer—the scrappy staple cocktail of each Korean night time out—one cousin requested me if I’d requested ChatGPT about my saju, a conventional Korean fortune-telling apply. A 29-year-old insurance coverage agent in Seoul praying for a brand new job and a boyfriend, she stated asking ChatGPT about work and relationship was her favourite pastime. She pulled up her cellphone and punched my delivery date into the chatbot.
Hooked on their screens, trapped between unemployment and dead-end jobs, and priced out of marriage and homeownership, 46% of South Koreans of their 20s have used a chatbot to learn their fortunes, in line with a survey by Korea Gallup.
My cousin stated she additionally asks ChatGPT for recommendations on buying and selling shares, dreaming massive about making financial institution on her funding accounts into which she’s been pouring her wage. ChatGPT, she believes, is her portal out of actuality into a greater future.
Regardless of how fond she is of the chatbot as her shaman and monetary advisor, she fears shedding her job to AI. She nonetheless makes use of ChatGPT feverishly at work, as all her coworkers do, afraid of falling behind.
“I generally worry AI, however for now, it’s simply so helpful,” she stated.
