A robot in South Korea commits suicide after a year in public service
The city council of a South Korean city has announced that its robot administrator committed suicide by jumping down a flight of stairs last week, with local media mourning the loss as the country’s first “suicidal robot.”
According to witnesses, before the jump, the robot circled in one place for some time, indicating that something had gone wrong, but the circumstances of the incident are still being established.
The robot was one of the first such creations to be hired by the mayor’s office: since August 2023, it has been helping employees with daily document delivery, advertising, and providing information to local residents.
“Officially, he was part of the mayor’s office, one of us. And he worked very hard,” one of the officials told local media (through channelnewsasia).
The robot was created by Bear Robotics, had its own civil servant card, and worked as usual from 9:00 to 18:00. Unlike other similar robots, this one served several floors at once and could call an elevator to get to them on its own.
South Korea is one of the most robotic countries in the world. According to the International Federation of Robotics, there is one industrial robot for every 10 workers.
The Kumi City Council has no plans to adopt a second robot administrator, reported in AFP.
