Work stress claims first robot victim: Gumi City's cyborg leaps to its end

In a bizarre incident, work pressure appears to have claimed its latest victim in South Korea: a robot! Yes, you read that right.

On June 26, South Korea’s Gumi City Council announced that its top administrative officer robot was found ‘dead’ after seemingly leaping down a six-and-a-half-foot flight of stairs. The city council is speculating whether the robot’s demise was an ‘act of suicide’. 

According to news agency Agence France-Presse, an official observed the robot “circling in one spot as if something was there” before the incident.

Appointed as a city council officer in August 2023, the robot could move between floors independently by calling an elevator. This advanced cyborg, made by California-based startup Bear Robotics, was the first of its kind to hold such a position, assisting with daily document deliveries, city promotion, and information dissemination. It worked regular hours from 9 am to 6 pm and even had a civil service officer card.

 

The burning question remains: why did the robot do it? Gumi City officials have launched an investigation into the incident, suspecting the robot might have been ‘depressed’. “Pieces have been collected and will be analysed by the company,” officials stated.

The robot’s unexpected end has sparked a conversation about the mental well-being of even the most advanced technologies. For now, Gumi City Council is not considering hiring another robot to replace the fallen officer.

South Korea, known for its rapid adoption of robotic technology, boasts the highest robot density in the world, with one industrial robot for every ten human employees, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

As reality starts to resemble a dystopian sci-fi narrative, headlines are buzzing with speculation about whether the cyborg succumbed to “work stress”. This situation eerily mirrors the 2004 sci-fi film ‘I, Robot’, where an advanced robot develops the human-like capability of ‘dreaming’.