Robot commits suicide for the first time in South Korea

world : Residents of a South Korean city are now mourning the incident, which is believed to be the first robot suicide. Eyewitnesses reported that the robot was spinning in circles before the incident occurred, as if reacting to something, although the exact cause of the fall is still under investigation. In a shocking incident, a South Korean civil servant robot has reportedly “committed suicide” after officials claimed it threw itself down the stairs for unknown reasons. The Gumi City Council said the robot stopped working after falling down a two-meter staircase and was found severely damaged in the stairwell between the first and second floors of the building, as reported by the Daily Mail. Residents of a South Korean city are now mourning the incident, which is believed to be the first robot suicide. Eyewitnesses reported that the robot was spinning in circles before the incident occurred, as if reacting to something, although the exact cause of the fall is still under investigation.
“The fragments have been collected and will be analysed by the company,” an official said. According to the report, the robot was tasked with daily document distribution, city promotions and providing information to local residents. “It was officially part of the city hall, one of us,” said a Gumi City Council official, adding that the robot worked “diligently”. The robot, which began its work in October 2023, was the first to be employed in this capacity. Local media have raised questions about whether the robot’s death could have been a suicide, speculating that the workload may have been too much for it. The robot, built by California-based startup Bear Robotics, worked from 9am to 6pm and had its own civil servant card. It was assigned the role in August 2023 and unlike other robots, it had the ability to call the elevator and navigate between floors independently.

Eyewitnesses saw the robot officer “walking around as if something was present” before the incident occurred. However, according to a city council official who spoke to AFP, the exact cause of the fall is still under investigation. Previously, a security robot named Steve reportedly “committed suicide” by drowning in a water fountain in Washington, DC. However, it was later determined that the incident was caused by the robot slipping on a “loose brick surface”, causing it to fall four floors into the fountain.