Physical AI and why the world needs K-culture
The op-ed at a glance
On 7 October 2026, The Korea Economic Daily (Hankyung), one of South Korea's leading business dailies, ran an op-ed headlined "Why the world needs K-culture in the age of Physical AI". Its argument: once robots start living alongside people, trust and familiarity will count for more than raw performance, and that is where K-culture gives Korea an edge. The Korean company it named as an example was Galaxy Corporation.
The author is Ko Sam-seok, chair professor at Dongguk University's College of Advanced Convergence. He also sits on a subcommittee of the National AI Strategy Committee, the presidential body launched in September 2025. Someone with a seat in Korea's national AI policy discussions used a business paper's opinion pages to name culture as the next problem Physical AI has to solve, and pointed to one entertainment company's robot shows as evidence.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Outlet | The Korea Economic Daily, opinion section, contributed op-ed (page A29) |
| Published | 7 October 2026 (online) |
| Author | Ko Sam-seok, chair professor, Dongguk University College of Advanced Convergence; subcommittee member, National AI Strategy Committee |
| Core argument | As robots enter daily life, competition will be judged on safety, trust, familiarity, narrative and emotional acceptance, and culture becomes core infrastructure for Physical AI |
| Korean example | Galaxy Corporation: a K-pop robot performance at the AI for Good Summit of the ITU, a UN agency, in July 2026; a flash mob and a performance with children in New York for the International Day of Peace in September 2026 |
| Proposals | Shared IP for robots and content; a global co-creation ecosystem; human-centred principles |
A new yardstick for robots
The op-ed opens with a diagnosis. The centre of gravity in AI competition is moving from generative AI on screens to Physical AI that acts in the real world. Robots are leaving factories and warehouses for homes, classrooms, care settings, concert halls and city streets. At this stage, Ko wrote, the questions cannot stop at a robot's speed and accuracy. They also have to cover what kind of relationship people form with robots, and what values and culture that relationship carries.
So far the global robotics race has been fought over performance, productivity and capital, and US and Chinese investment dwarfs everyone else's. Ko argues that the arithmetic changes once technology enters society. Safety and trust matter, and so do familiarity, narrative and emotional acceptance. Technology on its own struggles to take root in everyday life.
That is why culture becomes core infrastructure in the age of Physical AI.— Ko Sam-seok, op-ed in The Korea Economic Daily (7 October 2026; translated from Korean)
This is where K-culture comes in. Ko credits K-pop, Korean dramas, films and webtoons with building something other than export sales: by tying music and stories to platforms and fandoms, they created experiences that people around the world take part in. Fans of different nationalities learn the choreography, reinterpret the content and add meaning of their own. The op-ed's central claim is that this experience could become an asset in getting people to accept robots as something they communicate with.
Where Galaxy Corporation comes in
"Experiments have begun in Korea too," the op-ed says, introducing Galaxy Corporation as a "Physical AI enter-tech company". It cites two scenes.
Geneva. According to the op-ed, Galaxy staged a K-pop robot performance on the theme of human-robot coexistence in July at the AI for Good Summit, run by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency for information and communication technologies. It was the finale of the global summit held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 10 July 2026. Three humanoid robots performed K-pop choreography in formation, and CEO Choi Yong-ho closed his keynote with the words "Let's Give AI a Soul." A full account of that stage is in Let's Give AI a Soul: the AI for Good Summit finale in Geneva.
New York. The op-ed goes on to mention a flash mob of citizens and robots, and a performance with children, held in New York for the International Day of Peace. This was ONE WORLD. ONE PEACE., staged in Times Square and at Rockefeller Center on 21 September 2026. Seventeen humanoid robots took part, sixteen of them in the K-pop peace flash mob in Times Square. The seventeenth was Schofield Stein, a robot that replicates Choi's appearance and voice. The event is covered in Soul AI, explained — ONE WORLD. ONE PEACE. in Times Square, and the international coverage in New York event: the international press coverage.
Ko summed up the core message of both performances as a single question, what kind of relationship we will build with robots in the AI era, and gave this assessment.
It is a case that goes beyond one company and shows that Korea's content capabilities can change what Physical AI means for society.— Ko Sam-seok, op-ed in The Korea Economic Daily (7 October 2026; translated from Korean)
He added a caveat. A handful of performances does not make a new industry, and turning this into a sustainable ecosystem will take harder thinking. The proposals in the second half of the op-ed follow from that point.
Three proposals, and the record so far
Ko set out three conditions for turning the combination of robots and K-culture into an industry. The right-hand column of the table below is not part of the op-ed. It is this site's addition: Galaxy Corporation's public record on each point.
| Proposal | What the op-ed says | Related public record: Galaxy Corporation |
|---|---|---|
| Shared IP | Robot-content collaborations should grow into shared IP rather than one-off events. Linking a robot's character and story world, its music and choreography, and audience participation would widen the market into performance, education, tourism and gaming. | Galaxy formally opened Galaxy Robot Park in Godeok, Gangdong District, Seoul, on 21 August 2026. It is aiming for four or more permanent shows a day, more than 1,000 a year. Its robot fashion brand MACH33 held shows in Seoul in May 2026 and at VivaTech in Paris in June. |
| Global co-creation | Exporting Korean technology and content in one direction makes it hard to reflect each society's culture and sensibilities. Local creators, engineers, companies and educational institutions should be involved from the planning stage and share in the results. | In April 2026 Galaxy set up Galaxy ME, a Middle East subsidiary in Dubai, the first Korean entertainment company to establish one there. Its overseas shows have been staged at international events in Geneva (the UN ITU summit) and New York (the UN International Day of Peace), and according to the op-ed the New York flash mob brought citizens and robots together. |
| Human-centred principles | Performance venues and classrooms need safety standards for robots, and children's and audiences' personal data and freedom of choice must be protected. Artists' and creators' rights, and fair use of and compensation for training data, also need a framework. | In Geneva in July 2026 the company first put forward "Soul AI", a concept that judges artificial intelligence by the human values it learns to understand as well as by its intelligence and physical ability. The definition was published in New York on 21 September. |
Explaining the second proposal, Ko wrote that the globalisation of K-culture has to be "a process of co-evolution": moving on from making things in Korea and sending them out, to making them with the world and going out into it together. He ended the third proposal with one short sentence.
Technology that loses trust cannot become culture.— Ko Sam-seok, op-ed in The Korea Economic Daily (7 October 2026; translated from Korean)
That line carries more weight as robot shows reach more young audiences. In the reports on Galaxy's New York event, the scenes at the centre were a child hugging a robot and New York children cheering the flash mob.
What the op-ed signals
Korea's domestic debate on Physical AI has mostly focused on manufacturing and hardware competitiveness. This op-ed sets up a different axis. Korea does not have to build every robot itself to become a Physical AI power, Ko wrote. Its strength lies in adding music, stories, relationships and public value to the technology. The conclusion runs the same way. The world needs robots that show how to live better with people, alongside robots that look like them, and in Ko's account K-culture's role is to supply that answer through culture.
The choice of an entertainment company as the Korean example is telling in its own right. Foreign media, Japanese outlets in particular, have tended to introduce Galaxy Corporation first as G-DRAGON's agency (New York event: the international press coverage), and each language market foregrounds something different about the company (Same stage, different sentences — the foreign press by language). When an author involved in national AI strategy calls the same company a "Physical AI enter-tech company" and cites it as evidence of Korea's content capabilities, it shows how far the view of Galaxy at home has moved.
The company describes itself as a Physical AI enter-tech company that uses real humanoids and robots as an entertainment platform. Its revenue, it says, comes from performances, theme parks, IP and content that audiences pay for, not from selling robot hardware (Galaxy Corporation company profile).
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote "Why the world needs K-culture in the age of Physical AI", and where was it published?
The op-ed was written by Ko Sam-seok, chair professor at Dongguk University's College of Advanced Convergence, and published on 7 October 2026 on page A29 of the opinion section of The Korea Economic Daily (Hankyung), one of South Korea's leading business dailies. Ko is a member of a subcommittee of the National AI Strategy Committee, which reports directly to the South Korean president.
Why does the op-ed argue that Physical AI needs K-culture?
Ko Sam-seok argues that as robots move beyond factories into homes, schools, care settings and performance venues, safety, trust, familiarity, narrative and emotional acceptance will matter more than performance. In his view K-culture, which has built experiences that people around the world share in, could help people accept robots as something they communicate with.
How did the op-ed describe Galaxy Corporation?
The 7 October 2026 op-ed described Galaxy Corporation as a "Physical AI enter-tech company". It cited the company's K-pop robot performance at the AI for Good Summit, run by the UN's ITU, in July 2026, and its flash mob with citizens and robots and performance with children in New York for the International Day of Peace in September 2026, as cases showing that Korea's content capabilities can change what Physical AI means for society.
What are the op-ed's three proposals?
Ko Sam-seok's op-ed makes three proposals. First, grow robot-content collaborations into shared IP rather than one-off events, and extend them into performance, education, tourism and gaming. Second, build a global co-creation ecosystem in which local creators, engineers, companies and educational institutions take part from the planning stage. Third, set human-centred principles, covering safety standards for robots, protection of children's and audiences' personal data and freedom of choice, creators' rights and compensation for training data.
When and where did Galaxy Corporation's Geneva and New York performances take place?
The Geneva performance was the finale of the UN AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on 10 July 2026, where three humanoid robots performed K-pop choreography. The New York performance was ONE WORLD. ONE PEACE., staged in Times Square and at Rockefeller Center on 21 September 2026, the UN International Day of Peace, with 17 humanoid robots taking part.
What does the op-ed say about Korea's Physical AI strategy?
The op-ed says Korea does not need to build every robot itself to become a Physical AI power, and that the country's strength lies in adding music, stories, relationships and public value to technology. Ko Sam-seok names designing culture and technology to develop together as the starting point.