An unprecedented incident occurred in the South Korean city of Gumi: a robot administrator who worked in the city council stopped functioning after falling from a two-meter ladder. Local mass media reacted to the event with humor, dubbing it the first case of robot “suicide” in the country.
It informs AFP.
Witnesses saw the robot officer “circling in one spot as if there was something there” before the accident, but the exact cause of the fall is still being investigated, a city council official told AFP.
“The wreckage has been collected and will be analyzed by the company.”, the official said, adding that the robot “helped in the daily delivery of documents, promotion of the city and delivered information” to local residents.
“He was officially part of the city hall, one of us, another official said.
The robot, appointed in August 2023, was one of the first robot officials in the city. He performed a variety of tasks, helping to deliver documents, promote the city and inform local residents.
The local media reacted with humor to the event, raising questions about the possible overloading of the robot with tasks and joking about the “hard work” of a civil servant.
South Korea is one of the leaders in the use of robots, having the highest density of industrial robots in the world. However, despite this incident, the Gumi City Council does not yet plan to hire a new robot official.
