Robot supervisor shatters, sparks self-destruction speculation
"Robot Supervisor" was shattered on the stairwell between floors of the city council building in Gumi, South Korea. An investigation is expected to determine whether the overworked machine, equipped with artificial intelligence, decided to self-destruct. If so, it would be unprecedented.
3:49 PM EDT, June 29, 2024
In one of the offices in South Korea, officials were assisted by a robot. The robot transported documents and provided basic information to visitors. The robot could also move between floors using the elevator independently.
On Thursday, "Robot Supervisor" was found shattered on the stairwell between the first and second floors of the building. Speculation immediately arose online about whether its algorithm suggested self-destruction as the best option.
He was one of us. He worked diligently - an official from the Gumi city council told local media in Korea.
"Suicide" of the civil servant robot in South Korea
Bear Robotics, a California startup specializing in waiter robots, manufactured the robot. It worked from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and had its own civil servant ID card. The robot started working in the office in August 2023. It was one of the prototypes used to assist the city council.
According to its "colleagues," shortly before its remains were found, the robot was "acting strangely"—spinning aimlessly around its axis. Officials have paused plans to hire a new robot to replace the broken "Robot Supervisor."
South Korea is a country that shows remarkable enthusiasm for introducing robots to assist people in their daily work. According to the International Federation of Robotics, there is one robot for every ten workers in the country. No other country can boast such advanced robotics and mechanization in offices and other critical areas of life.
This is not the first "suicide" of a robot - the first case in the USA
This is not the first case of a robot becoming non-compliant. In the United States in 2017, a very similar incident was recorded. Robot Steve, who was assigned to "identify potential threats," knocked over a 1-year-old and then left the scene. It was found submerged in a city fountain. The machine's manufacturer, Knightscope, claimed that the robot "slipped" on a loose tile. Internet users mocked the futuristic promises at the time.
Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself. We were promised flying cars, instead, we got suicidal robots - a user wrote on platform X.
