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Korea Herald
29-05-2025
- Korea Herald
1 in 4 Koreans use generative AI: survey
Nearly 1 in 4 Koreans have used generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, signaling rapid adoption and growing public interest in the emerging technology, according to a recent government survey released Thursday. The survey, conducted jointly by the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Information Society Development Institute, involved 4,420 respondents aged 15 to 69 across all 17 major provinces and metropolitan areas. All participants were smartphone users who access the internet at least once a day. According to the findings, both usage and paid subscriptions of AI services have surged over the past year. Some 24 percent of respondents said they had used generative AI tools -- nearly double the figure reported last year. Meanwhile, 7 percent said they had subscribed to paid generative AI services, marking a sevenfold increase from a year ago. The range of applications for generative AI has also diversified. Asked how they most frequently use AI, respondents cited text generation (57.2 percent), voice or music generation (21.4 percent) and image generation (11.8 percent). In comparison, text-based use alone accounted for over 80 percent last year, indicating broader adoption across creative domains. Efficiency in information retrieval emerged as the most common reason for using generative AI, cited by 87.9 percent of users. Support with daily tasks (70 percent) and the use of AI as a conversational partner (69.5 percent) followed closely. However, a lack of user competence remains a key barrier to broader adoption. Among those who have not yet used generative AI, 65.2 percent said they avoided it because they believed it required a high level of technical knowledge. Concerns over privacy (58.9 percent) and perceptions that the tools are too complex to use (57.3 percent) were also cited.
Korea Herald
20-05-2025
- Korea Herald
For 15 years, Apple's Find My app didn't work in South Korea. This guy changed that
For over a decade, one couldn't use Apple's device-tracking feature in South Korea like in the rest of the world. Apple said nothing until one man refused to accept it and forced the trillion-dollar company to act Apple is not the type of company that explains itself. It doesn't respond to petitions. And it almost never makes country-specific feature changes, especially not for one person. Except in South Korea, where that's exactly what happened recently. For over 15 years, one of Apple's most critical device-tracking features, called Find My, was quietly and almost entirely disabled in South Korea. Millions of Korean users owned iPhones, AirPods and AirTags that were, in practice, untrackable if lost or stolen. Unlike billions of users in nearly every other country, they couldn't locate their devices via GPS or track missing items with AirTags. No one seriously questioned it. The assumption was: there must be a law -- something about Korean mapping regulations or national security. Even Apple's own support website vaguely cited 'local laws' without naming one. But there was no such law. And in all likelihood, Apple could have activated the feature the entire time. Now Koreans know this, because one man bothered to raise the issue. The man who asked a 'stupid' question In 2022, Hwang Ho-chan was a regular Apple user with a long-held irritation: "Why couldn't people in Korea use Find My like everyone else?" He was told the usual: laws, security, geopolitics. But then he stumbled across something odd: an old post claiming someone had tracked their AirPods using Find My on Baengnyeong Island, a remote Korean territory. If the feature was illegal under Korean law, he thought, why did it work there? Most people would've shrugged. But Hwang decided to book a trip there to investigate. He traveled to Ulleungdo and Dokdo, two remote Korean islands in the East Sea. There, with his own devices, he tested Find My. And it worked. Find My lit up. The GPS tracking feature worked. He recalled, 'I remember standing there with my phone thinking, 'Okay, either this is illegal and Apple's violating the law out here, or the whole thing is a lie.'' Most users would have stopped there, but Hwang didn't. Campaign nobody asked for What followed was a 19-month campaign marked by Hwang's dogged persistence, overwhelming indifference and frequent humiliation. Hwang began by writing up a meticulous breakdown of his findings on Asamo, Korea's largest Apple user forum. He showed that GPS-based features like Fitness tracking and iCloud photo geotagging were already live in Korea. There was in fact no law blocking Find My from working as well. When online posts weren't enough, he escalated. He filed formal complaints and information requests to: The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport The Consumer Protection Agency The Fair Trade Commission Government replies slowly trickled in. None could cite any law prohibiting Find My. The KCC confirmed that Apple Korea itself had stated the limitation was not due to law, but "internal policy." Still, Apple Korea didn't take further action. So Hwang took his campaign to the streets of Seoul. Living outside Seoul, he printed protest signs and rode hours by bus to stand, alone, outside Apple Stores in Myeongdong, Garosu-gil and Gangnam, holding large signs with QR codes linking to his findings. Most passersby ignored him. Online, many ridiculed him. 'Why are you yelling at Apple? It's the government's fault.' 'You think they'll change anything because of you? You're no one. You have zero power.' But Hwang kept going. Letters, petitions and doors that wouldn't open Then Hwang did something few ever have: in June 2024, he went directly to Apple Korea's headquarters in Seoul's ASEM Tower. He had no official appointment or legal team. He just drafted a letter demanding a clear explanation. The front desk refused to take it. So he waited, received a visitor card, went up to the door, and slid it under and into their office, hoping "someone would see it." In July, he even launched a national petition titled 'Apple Korea, Please Explain the 'Find My' Discrimination.' Over 9,000 users signed. At the same time, he also started a KakaoTalk open chat group, which eventually saw thousands cycle through, many of them sharing stories of lost devices and missed opportunities. Eventually, major media noticed. In late July, SBS aired a national news segment on the issue. Hwang's long-dismissed campaign was now mainstream. His once-ignored protest signs appeared on national TV. And then, in September 2024, Apple blinked. On Sept. 5 last year, Apple issued an extremely rare, Korea-only press release: Find My would finally be rolled out in full as part of iOS 18.4, set for release in spring 2025. On April 1, the update went live. Korea's Apple users could now do what those in the rest of the world had taken for granted since 2010: track lost AirPods or other Apple devices. Within days, Hwang's open KakaoTalk chat filled with screenshots of recovered items. With AirTags — Apple's coin-sized trackers that use nearby devices to relay their location — finally working in Korea, users were able to find lost backpacks, wallets and AirPods for the first time, along with some long-overdue peace of mind. Apple never acknowledged Hwang. It never admitted it was at fault or explained the original restriction. But it didn't matter. Now the feature was available. Although no offical data is available, Hwang believes South Korea has over 10 million Apple users, yet for 15 years, no one — not the media, influencers or lawmakers—questioned why a basic feature was missing. Everyone assumed someone else had checked. One person finally did. 'For me, this wasn't just about the feature alone,' he said. 'It was about how easy it is for misinformation to settle into something permanent. People thought Apple had a good reason. But no one could say what it was.' Looking back, what surprises him most is not how long it took to get the service working here, but how no one else had attempted to do so. He's still amazed it worked. 'I had no power. I didn't have money or a title. I was unemployed when I started. But I kept thinking, If this isn't right, someone should fix it. And eventually, that someone had to be me.' mjh@
Korea Herald
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Two justices' coming exits raise concerns about Constitutional Court's functioning
Eyes on acting president's decision on Assembly nominee Ma Eun-hyeok With two justices at South Korea's Constitutional Court set to retire on April 18, concerns are growing over the court's ability to function effectively, as only six out of nine of its positions will be filled. According to legal experts, acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae and Justice Lee Mi-son will conclude their six-year terms next week. Both were appointed by former President Moon Jae-in under the presidential quota that allows the head of the administration to directly designate three of the court's nine members. Theoretically, the court can still deliberate on cases and deliver rulings with just six justices, as in October last year, the court temporarily suspended a provision of the Constitutional Court Act that requires at least seven justices to be present for deliberations to proceed. This comes after a unanimous decision by the court to grant an injunction request filed by Korea Communications Commission Chairwoman Lee Jin-sook, whose impeachment was dismissed on Jan. 23. Lee had challenged Article 23, Paragraph 1 of the Constitutional Court Act, which mandates a minimum of seven justices for a case to be heard. However, legal observers are skeptical about the court's ability to issue meaningful rulings with just six members. From October to December last year, the court was unable to deliver a single ruling until Chung Kye-sun and Cho Han-chang were appointed by then-acting President Choi Sang-mok on Jan. 1. Attention now turns to whether current acting President Han Duck-soo will proceed with the appointment of Ma Eun-hyeok, the remaining nominee for the bench. Ma's confirmation has been halted due to a lack of bipartisan agreement in the National Assembly. The Constitutional Court has not yet commented on the successors to Justices Moon and Lee, whose replacements require direct presidential appointment, raising a question of whether acting President Han has the authority to make such appointments. If Han postpones the appointments until after a new president is elected, the earliest the Constitutional Court could be fully staffed with nine justices would be around July. This timeline assumes the new president appoints Ma, who has already been nominated by the Assembly, along with two additional nominees of his or her own. The confirmation and appointment process typically takes about a month. Meanwhile, several high-profile cases are pending at the court, including those related to the Severe Disaster Punishment Act and same-sex marriage, as well as a number of jurisdictional disputes and the impeachment trials of Police Chief Cho Ji-ho and prosecutor Son Joon-seong, which haven't even started the deliberations yet.
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Forbes
Samsung Updates Millions Of Galaxy Phones To Stop Attacks
Is this the fix we're waiting for? Your phone is now at risk from Chinese attacks sweeping across America from 'state to state.' These threats come by way of malicious texts crafted to steal your money and even your identity. But if you're a Galaxy owner, maybe Samsung has the fix. The Galaxy-maker has been working on a solution for malicious texts with Korean communication and security agencies since last year. Now it is hitting users' devices. Per local reports, the Korea Communications Commission has confirmed 'it has developed an 'AI based malicious message blocking feature' in collaboration with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and Samsung.' This will come with Android 15 and One UI 7, and unsurprisingly the new Galaxy S25 will get it first. It will then be available to other flagships once they're upgraded. This arrives in Korea as American media warns SMS scams are 'out of control across the U.S., and Apple, Android can't do anything to stop it.' It needs a wider deployment. This new security update 'is an AI-based technology that automatically blocks messages containing suspicious content on smartphones. It categorizes and blocks illegal spam messages that include sender numbers deemed to be malicious and risky links (URLs).' If that works as billed, then Samsungs may be first to kill the road toll, undelivered packages and other smashing attacks now 'spiraling out of control' in America. Attackers rotate numbers to beat blocks. But these are driven by phishing kits and include malicious links from clearly dubious URLs and telltale wording. This should be child's play for sophisticated on-device AI to eradicate once and for all. Clearly this will need to be adapted for regional variations, but this is AI and should be able to adapt to widen its aperture as it rolls out more widely. Between this and Google's new anti scam defenses that are coming first to Pixels, users will be better protected. The recent federal, state and local law enforcement warnings for Americans to delete these texts which seem to easily bypass current defenses has raised the profile of so-called smishing. The pressure is now on phone maker as to deploy solutions. When it goes live in Korea, 'users can selectively unblock or check blocked malicious messages, messages blocked by AI, and messages they have blocked in case they need to receive automatically blocked messages.' We await news on any wider rollout.
Korea Herald
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Acting president exercises 9th veto; urges respect of Yoon Suk Yeol impeachment verdict
Acting President Choi Sang-mok vetoed another opposition-led bill on Tuesday, citing constitutional concerns and potential disruption of the Korea Communications Commission's decision-making process. During a Cabinet meeting in Seoul, Choi argued that the bill contained 'significant unconstitutional elements' and warned that it could undermine the stability of the KCC's operations. He emphasized that the bill must undergo a revote in parliament, requiring at least 200 votes in the 300-member legislature. It was the ninth veto he exercised since the Deputy Prime Minister assumed the role of acting president in late December, as both President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo are currently impeached. Under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a total of 40 bills were vetoed — including opposition-led bills to launch special counsel probes into scandals involving Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee. None overrode the presidential veto at the National Assembly. The opposition-led bill, which passed the parliament's plenary session on Feb. 27, is aimed at requiring at least three members of the KCC to be present to make decisions on broadcast governance. Under the current rule, the KCC may make key decisions with only two out of five members present on the panel. Currently, the KCC boardroom has Chair Lee Jin-sook and Vice Chair Kim Tae-kyu — both nominated by President Yoon — while the three posts remain vacant as the parliament failed to reach a compromise. With the two chairs, the KCC has made decisions under Yoon's administration such as replacing board members for public broadcasters, including those critical of Yoon. The opposition party led the impeachment of Chairperson Lee in August, upon her inauguration in late July. Her impeachment case was overturned with a 4-4 ruling at the Constitutional Court in January. Regarding the ongoing social division amid lingering deliberation by the Constitutional Court over Yoon's impeachment, Choi urged people to peacefully respect the impeachment verdict regardless of how the ruling unfolds. "I sincerely ask people again to express their opinion within legal boundaries until the end, and to respect and accept any court decisions," Choi said. Deputy Prime Minister Choi added that any occurrence of vandalism, arson, or any other physical violence against law enforcement in the wake of the impeachment ruling would be met with "a zero-tolerance principle." The eight-member judicial bench at the Constitutional Court has yet to announce the date for the final verdict on Yoon's case as of press time. The nation's top court has deliberated on the case after the impeachment trial wrapped up on Feb. 26 with 11 hearings. No previous impeachment cases involving court deliberation that took longer than two weeks. Since democratization in 1987, three out of eight South Korean presidents have been impeached by the parliament. The court overturned former President Roh Moo-hyun's case 63 days after the parliament's impeachment. However, former President Park Geun-hye's case was upheld in 91 days. She became the first sitting president to be removed from office. Choi also thanked citizens for refraining from violence at rallies last past weekend, when tens of thousands of people -- both for and against Yoon's impeachment -- took to the streets of cities including Seoul. "Before the Constitutional Court's critical ruling, the clash between those supportive of Yoon's removal and those against it is intensifying, which amplifies people's concerns about accidents and physical conflict," Choi said.
