Artificial intelligence experts from around the world have called off their plans to boycott South Korea’s top science and technology research university KAIST over concerns that it was collaborating with a local arms maker over the development of autonomous “killer robots.”　KAIST said Monday that the group of AI researchers who had signed on to the boycott had withdrawn its plans to sever ties with the Korean university, after the institute gave clear, public assurance that AI-based weapons wou

Technology April 9, 2018

GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., said Monday it will pay monthly salaries to its employees this month despite a liquidity crisis.　In a letter sent to employees, GM Korea President and Chief Executive Kaher Kazem said the company will provide part of the salaries due to its 11,000 assembly line workers on Tuesday and will make efforts to give the remainder before the end of the week, according to a company spokesman.　Some 2,500 office workers receive their monthly salari

Mobility April 9, 2018

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising startups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the 17th installment. - Ed.Checking for signs of cancer has long been confined to the domain of hospitals, where complex examinations are conducted. It could be an MRI, a CT scan, a lengthy blood test or a biopsy that requires harvesting a sample of tissue from the body for further examination at a lab.But wh

Technology April 9, 2018

South Korea’s Transport Ministry said Friday that Kakao Taxi, the country’s most-used taxi-hailing app, must follow local regulations in introducing a new option to its service that allows customers who pay an extra fee via the app to catch taxis faster.　The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement that after a review of Kakao Taxi’s proposal to add a paid option to its service, the new function is deemed the same as existing “call taxi” services where customers pay a c

Technology April 6, 2018

South Korean biopharma company Celltrion expects to obtain US approval for its two biosimilar drugs referencing Roche’s Herceptin and Rituxan by the year’s end, despite the US Food and Drug Administration’s initial turn-down of the two drugs this week.　Celltrion said Thursday that the US FDA has issued Complete Response Letters for two of its proposed biosimilars -- Herzuma, referencing Herceptin and Truxima, referencing Rituxan -- and requested supplementary data on the products.　A CRL indicate

Industry April 6, 2018

Samsung Electronics on Friday reported higher-than-projected earnings during the first quarter, with operating profit topping market expectations by around 1 trillion won on successful memory chip sales. 　Operating profit in the January-March period likely jumped 57.58 percent on-year to 15.6 trillion won ($14.6 billion), while revenue was estimated to have increased by 18.69 percent on-year to 60 trillion won, the South Korean tech giant said in an earnings guidance report. (Yonhap)Samsung did

Technology April 6, 2018

For years, North Korea has launched persistent cyberattacks, largely directed at its Southern neighbor, in an aim to steal key security intelligence and generate cash for the regime. 　Though it’s difficult to map out the exact scope of the North’s hacking campaigns, cybersecurity company FireEye says it has newly identified a North Korean espionage group able to launch highly sophisticated cyberattacks, and out to target organizations in not only South Korea but also other countries.Officials of

Technology April 5, 2018

KAIST, South Korea’s top science and technology university, on Thursday rebutted claims that it was contributing to the development of artificial intelligence-powered killer robots, which had prompted over 50 of the world’s top AI researchers to announce a boycott of KAIST.　“I am saddened to hear about the announcement on the boycott of KAIST for allegedly developing killer robots,” KAIST President Shin Sung-chul said in a public statement.　“I would like to reaffirm that KAIST does not have any

Technology April 5, 2018

South Korea’s Netmarble Games said Wednesday that it has invested 201.4 billion won ($190 million) toward acquiring a 25.71 percent stake in Big Hit Entertainment, the agency behind the globally popular K-pop group BTS.The investment makes Netmarble the second-largest shareholder of Big Hit Entertainment, according to the Korean game maker.“Big Hit Entertainment is a fast-growing company which is already cooperating with Netmarble,” said Netmarble in a statement. “We hope that this investment wi

Technology April 4, 2018

US pharmaceutical company Janssen will start carrying out phase 2 clinical trials in the US to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a diabetes drug candidate originally developed by South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical, the companies announced Wednesday.The study was uploaded onto ClinicalTrials.gov, a website through which most pharma companies recruit participants for upcoming clinical trials, by Janssen under the drug code name JNJ-6456511.  Hanmi Pharmaceutical's headquarters in southern Seoul

Industry April 4, 2018

As the cryptocurrency boom continues to sweep the world, hacking activities aimed at mining cryptocurrencies have emerged as the top internet security threat of the year, shows a new report released by global cybersecurity firm Symantec.According to Symantec’s “2018 Internet Security Threat Report” released this week, cryptojacking — the act of hacking a computer system to mine cryptocurrencies without the owner of the machine knowing — was the biggest trending attack of 2017.(123RF)Coin mining

Technology April 4, 2018

Neofect, a South Korean medical technology startup specializing in smart rehabilitation solutions, is officially stepping into Japan’s rehab market in partnership with Japanese medical equipment maker Nihon Kohden, officials said Wednesday.　Under the distribution partnership signed this week, Nihon Kohden will begin selling Neofect’s Rapael smart rehabilitation devices and solutions -- designed to help stroke survivors and patients with neurological and musculoskeletal injuries regain key motor

Technology April 4, 2018

Over the past year or two, Park Ji-yoon, a 28-year-old office worker in Seoul, has gradually stopped carrying her wallet when going to most places, be it a convenience store, a restaurant or a bar.There is no need to do so, Park says, as she is an avid user of mobile payment services that allow her to make transactions using just her smartphone, both in the offline and online world.“At offline retailers, I just have to activate my mobile pay service on my smartphone and place the device next to

Technology April 3, 2018

LG CNS, an information technology services provider under South Korea’s LG Group, has launched smart factory platform Factova equipped with artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and big data processing technology solutions, the company said Tuesday. Short for a combination of “factory” and “value,” Factova aims to optimize a factory’s overall operations -- including product planning, design, production and logistics -- by leveraging AI and big data analytics, LG CNS said.The firm built its

Technology April 3, 2018

South Korea’s top game developers including Nexon, and possibly Netmarble Games, are considering challenging the basis of the Fair Trade Commission’s recent decision to impose 1 billion won ($945,200) in penalties and fines for deceiving customers in promoting their randomized in-game items.The move comes after the Korean FTC penalized three local gamemakers for their deceptive randomized in-game item promotion practices on Sunday.Nexon Korea was slapped with a 939 million won penalty and a 5.5

Technology April 2, 2018