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The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

Cho Hee-kyoung

What does it mean to be human?

What does it mean to be human? The rapid advances in computing technology are challenging our basic assumptions about what it is to be human. Attributes that we used to think were unique to humans, such as creativity, language, making up stories and even perhaps lying, are now being shared with artificial intelligence.

2023-05-04 16:40

Work smarter, not harder

You would've had to have been living under a rock for the last few months to have not heard about ChatGPT, the latest generative artificial intelligence (AI) developed by OpenAI, that is designed to understand natural language input and generate human-like responses in various contexts. Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, recently issued a report predicting that AI could replace 300 million full-time jobs worldwide, but that it would also lead to the creation of new jobs and a productivity boom, thanks to greater automation and efficiency that the use of AI would bring.

2023-04-11 16:30

A case of school bullying

Earlier this year, “The Glory,” a Korean drama series that screened on an OTT platform, became the most-watched non-English program in just a matter of weeks despite dealing with the difficult topic of school bullying. The word 'bullying' seems too facile a term for the kind of violence meted out to the victim in the drama which amounted to grievous bodily harm who has third-degree burns inflicted upon her.

2023-03-07 16:40

Facing up to the cold reality

A lot of people got a nasty surprise when they received their gas bills in January. Price had gone up by at least one-third compared to the same period last year. For many, the increase more than doubled their energy bill affecting the least well-off the most.

2023-02-07 17:00

Down the rabbit hole

Did the New Year feel a little flat this year or was it just me? Sending off 2022 with a sigh of relief. Good riddance, one might say. It was not a happy year, descending to the nadir with a senseless tragedy in its final months. But the changing of the calendar year has not ushered in a new beginning, it feels.

2023-01-11 16:40

Truck drivers and Texas sharpshooters

Nationwide, thousands of cargo truckers have been on a strike since late November in a dispute over the price of freight. The government has labelled the strike illegal and claimed that the truckers, who are already earning a high income, are holding the entire economy hostage to enrich themselves further.

2022-12-06 16:50

Only the good die young

There are supposed to be five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I can pinpoint to the exact moment when my disbelief and denial turned into anger over the Halloween disaster in Itaewon that has so far taken 156 lives.

2022-11-08 14:23

Gonggam: empathy for needy people

In the middle of Seoul's concrete jungle, the old palace of Changdeok-gung remains beautifully preserved. Changdeok Palace is famous for Biwon, or the Secret Garden. Hidden away at the back of the palace grounds, the Secret Garden is a tranquil green oasis, offering a refuge from the noise, pollution and the constant stream of traffic and people ever present in Seoul. Just nearby, a stone's throw away from the palace, is the office of the Korean Public Interest Lawyers Group (KPIL), the first public interest legal organization in Korea. Like the Secret Garden, it is a green oasis offering su...

2022-10-25 14:12

Hapless Leviathan: a critical look at investor-state dispute settlement

As the month of August drew to a close, it seemed that the long-running dispute between Lone Star, a private equity fund from Texas, and the government of South Korea was finally coming to an end. The international arbitration tribunal established to hear the investor state dispute case brought by Lone Star ordered the Korean government to pay it $216.5 million in damages plus interest.

2022-09-13 15:13

Role of messenger and criminal defamation

Korea is one of the few countries among the developed democracies where defamation is still prosecuted as a crime. Most member states of the OECD long ago decriminalized defamation and treat it only as a civil wrong to be resolved between two private parties. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights ruled in 2012 that criminal defamation is a violation of freedom of expression and is inconsistent with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

2022-08-09 15:49

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