Recent discussions about the implications of artificial intelligence for employment have veered between the poles of apocalypse and utopia. Under the apocalyptic scenario, AI will displace a large share of all jobs, vastly exacerbating inequality as a small capital-owning class acquires productive surpluses previously shared with human laborers. The utopian scenario, curiously, is the same, except that the very rich will be forced to share their winnings with everyone else through a universal ba

The April 10 general elections delivered a crushing defeat to the ruling People Power Party, which took home just 108 seats in the 300-member National Assembly in South Korea. The result signals that President Yoon Suk Yeol will be under strong pressure to seek cooperation with the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea to push ahead with his key policy initiatives and grapple with the growing uncertainties on the economic front. Unfortunately, Yoon is unlikely to ditch his notoriously unilat

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea will be controlling a majority of the legislature for another four years, as it won 175 seats including proportional representation seats of its satellite party in the 300-member National Assembly. Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk‘s Rebuilding Korea Party, the Democratic Party’s closest friend, won 12 seats, raising the number of the two friendly forces to 187. The ruling People Power Party and its satellite party managed to secure just ov

The academic seminar is busy reinventing itself in 21st century style. A space of learning that the humanities have relied on for centuries, it’s more powerful than ever. The seminars getting the high-profile attention are the ones that push the boundaries when it comes to “academic” subject matter. Taylor Swift is the celebrity seminar topic of the moment. But seminars for credit on everything from the music of The Beatles to hip-hop studies are the new normal in higher educat

Unlike in previous elections, a single industrial sector has drawn keen attention among major parties and voters in the run-up to the April 10 general election. The sector in question is none other than the country’s crucial semiconductors industry, which accounts for about 20 percent of the country's exports. What’s more, the chips industry is expected to take center stage among policymakers regarding legislative efforts and policy support, even after the general election has c

If the British computer scientist Alan Turing’s work on “thinking machines” was the prequel to what we now call artificial intelligence, the late psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s bestselling “Thinking, Fast and Slow” might be the sequel, given its insights into how we ourselves think. Understanding “us” will be crucial for regulating “them.” That effort has rapidly moved to the top of policymakers’ agenda. On March 21, the UN unanim

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., scion of one of America’s most storied political families, is running for president of the United States. But unlike his late uncles -- President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy (who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1980) -- or his late father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (who was assassinated during his own presidential run), RFK Jr. is not campaigning as a Democrat. Instead, he is running as the head of a newly formed third party, We the People. Thus unfolds th

As the well-known saying goes, “Life is a journey.” Indeed, we are all lifelong travelers in one way or another. When we travel, we may have a pleasant trip, where we meet new people and enjoy exciting adventures. We might also have a perilous journey of obstacles and ordeals. During our voyage, we might encounter a perfect storm or a dangerous reef that threatens to capsize us. Other times, we become lost and wander, or we may stumble down the wrong path. The 2021 American science f

For many years, political news in South Korea has been awash with unpleasant or horrible things politicians said or did, either recently or years ago. Especially ahead of elections, parties with political interests go all out to dig dirt on their opponents in an apparent bid to take them down. The past two weeks were no exception, and sadly, it seems to get worse each year. It is a wonder how some people with such lack of conscience or decency could win major political parties’ nomination

K-pop group BTS debuted in June 2013, and the rest is history. But did you ever wonder about the other boy groups that debuted that year? Maybe it’s because I’m a sociologist, but I believe we can learn more about social phenomena when we talk to the average rather than exceptional person, or idol in this case. There are thousands of former idols or trainees that didn’t “make it big.” Some have even managed to stay in the K-pop music industry. For people who becam

The Kennedy era guru on capitalism, John Kenneth Galbraith, presciently proclaimed in the “New Industrial State” (1967) that “the imperatives of technology and organization, not the images of ideology, are what determine the shape of economic society." The cacophony of ideology, including religious fervor, is what is killing people in Ukraine, Gaza and other warring states. In the meantime, investors worldwide are chasing tech stocks like Nvidia while the rest of the wor

With a single day left to go to the general election, a record turnout in early voting is being interpreted in various ways by political parties as well as media outlets. Although the high participation rate of voters in elections is generally a positive development, there is an issue linked to early voting that policymakers and election authorities have to address for future elections: the lack of real-time information about voter trends. There was no restriction in publicizing data about the t

South Korea posted a sixth consecutive month of growth in exports during March over a year earlier, official data showed last week, led by a surge in sales abroad of big-ticket items such as semiconductors and ships. This fueled the projection that the country’s economic growth would pick up this year after suffering a below-trend reading last year. Exports in March rose 3.1 percent from a year earlier to $56.5 billion, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry an

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s nearly weeklong visit to China, now underway, will most likely focus on US concerns about Chinese subsidies to producers of electric vehicles and other clean-tech goods. While the availability of cheap EVs is good news for the planet and for consumers everywhere, it is bad news for shareholders and employees of Western car companies, and both the United States and the European Union are considering imposing import tariffs on Chinese EVs. But tariffs are

To tackle potential security threats amid deepening defense cooperation among North Korea, China and Russia, the US and its allies committed to maintaining a rules-based international order face a growing need to band together. Hence, there have been repeated calls from Washington that the Group of Seven should be expanded to include Australia and South Korea. The Center for Strategic and International Studies proposed in its recent report that the US and Japan should consider G7 expansion to in

Happiness popped back in the news recently with the release of the “2024 World Happiness Report.” The report made waves in the US because of a sharp drop in happiness, particularly among people under the age of 30, which fell to 62nd. The country ranked 23rd, marking the first time that the US dropped out of the top 20, out of 143 countries surveyed. The report made fewer waves in South Korea because it confirmed the established media narrative, both domestic and international, that

South Korea’s consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 3.1 percent on-year for the second-straight month in March, driven by skyrocketing prices of fruits and strong oil prices, Statistic Korea data showed. More important than the headline figures is that a growing number of consumers are feeling a far stronger pinch in their pockets, especially when they browse the lofty price tags of grocery store items. It may not be such a shocking development that consumer prices stayed above 3

President Yoon Suk Yeol wishes to meet with trainee doctors to hear them out, Yoon’s office said Tuesday, but the Korea Intern Resident Association has not officially responded. The presidential office made the statement hours after Cho Yoon-jeong, public relations committee chief of the Medical Professors Association of Korea, implored KIRA leader Park Dan to meet with Yoon “without any conditions” if the president extended the invitation. Yoon said Monday the medical communit

Korean Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup resigned only 25 days after his appointment. Chung Jae-ho, the ambassador to China, is under investigation after an embassy staffer reported the abuse of power. It might be better to avoid such shameful stories, but the stories of the two ambassadors dramatically show the critical vulnerabilities of Korean diplomacy. It might be worth a detailed review in that they undermine -- not maximize -- the national interests of Korea. Ex-Ambassador Lee Jong-sup

Once the “sick man of Europe,” Germany seems to be under the weather once again. That might be putting it mildly: much as it did in the late 1990s, Germany is staring down the barrel of “stagflation” -- high inflation and unemployment combined with stagnant demand and low growth. A lack of effective political leadership further darkens the outlook for Germany -- and for the European Union that depends on it. France might be the EU’s second-largest economy, a nuclear