Why do South Koreans love AI so much?
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- South Korea shows the world's lowest AI anxiety in a Pew survey of 25 countries — only 16% say they are more concerned than excited about AI, compared with 50% of Americans who are more worried than excited; a separate government survey found a majority of Koreans use AI daily as a personal assistant or work tool.
- President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in 2025, launched the Presidential Council on National AI Strategy, funded a sovereign AI foundation model project for Korean companies, and pledged to vault South Korea into the "top three AI powers" alongside the US and China.
- South Korea's AI Basic Act — passed in 2024 and described as one of the world's first comprehensive AI laws — prioritizes development with light-touch regulation; 70% of South Koreans say advancing science and medicine through AI innovation outweighs protecting industries through regulation, per the 2026 Stanford AI Index.
- Samsung and SK Hynix, which supply most of the world's high-bandwidth memory chips for Nvidia AI hardware, have each surpassed $1 trillion in valuation and helped drive the Kospi to record highs in 2026.
- Stanford's 2026 AI Index ranked South Korea third globally in the number of notable AI models, based on criteria including state-of-the-art advancements and high citation rates.
- Despite the optimism, the Hyundai Motor Group union fiercely protested Hyundai's January announcement of Atlas humanoid robots in car factories, declaring "Without labor-management agreement, not a single robot using new technology will be allowed to enter the workplace"; separately, a 2025 AI textbook rollout drew backlash over factual errors and data privacy risks.
- 46% of South Koreans in their 20s have used a chatbot to read their fortunes, per Korea Gallup — the article profiles a 29-year-old insurance agent who asks ChatGPT about saju, stock trading, and work tasks, and says: "I sometimes fear AI, but for now, it's just so useful."
Why it matters: South Korea's bet that AI-first adoption will secure economic relevance is producing measurable returns — Stanford's 2026 index ranked it third in notable AI models, and Samsung and SK Hynix each surpassed $1 trillion in valuation. But 64% of South Koreans still fear job displacement, and the Hyundai union's fight over Atlas robots shows deployment speed is outpacing labor consensus.
