Administrative robot employee in Korea commits suicide because of working too hard?

The Gumi City Council (South Korea) announced that the robot worker was found unresponsive after falling down a 2-meter-high staircase last week, according to AFP.

A Gumi city council official told AFP that witnesses saw the robot "moving around a spot as if there was something there" before the incident, but the exact cause was still under investigation.

The official added that the debris had been collected and would be analyzed by the company. The robot worker had been “helping with daily documentation, promoting the city and providing information” to locals, the official said. “It is officially part of the city hall, one of us. It has been working hard,” another official said.

The Korean media questioned whether it was an apparent suicide by the robot employee and asked, "Why would a diligent civilian employee do that?, Is the robot working too hard?".

Put into use as an administrative worker in August 2023, the robot is one of the first to be used in this way in Gumi City.

Produced by Bear Robotics, a robot waiter startup in California (USA), robot staff work from 9am to 6pm and have their own employee badge.

Unlike other robots that can only operate on one floor, the Gumi City Council robot can move up and down floors on its own. South Korea has the highest robot density in the world , with one industrial robot for every 10 employees, according to the International Federation of Robotics.