“You would get to see a massive canyon, some frozen icebergs, geysers, and some craters.” This is not what a human said, but what an AI responded, taking the role of Pluto when it was asked, “Tell me what I would see if I visited (you).”Google’s new conversational machine learning program, LaMDA (short for “Language Model for Dialogue Applications”) is drawing attention due to its proficient, human-like words. LaMDA was announced at the 2021 Google I/O (Innovation in the Open), Google’s annual developer conference, which aired online from May 18 to 19 at Mountain Dew’s head office in Californi

On April 22, 2021, 23-year-old Lee Seon-Ho passed away in a devastating industrial accident. While working part-time to clean cargo containers on the port of Pyeongtaek, in Gyeonggi-do, the container’s 300kg iron plate crushed Lee to death. There was no safety management official or signal operator near him. The victim had been sent to work without undergoing any safety training.The problem of a weak safety system came into the spotlight after the Korean television channel JTBC released CCTV footage of the tragic accident. After JTBC’s video went public, the Cheongwadae’s national petition, wh

Protests for democracy in Burma (more formally known as Myanmar) have erupted after the military staged a coup against democratically held elections. The Southeast Asian country is under turmoil as the military continues to kill hundreds of civilian protesters, jailing and injuring thousands more.The military (known as the Tatmadaw) dominates political and economic power in Myanmar. The country was under direct military rule from 1962 to 2011. Since then, the military implemented parliamentary elections and other political and economic reforms in 2011. However, the military still held a signif

On Oct. 13, 2020, an adopted 16-month old baby died of severe abdominal injuries, internal bleeding, and prolonged abuse. Though the abuse was reported three times, the police failed to help the baby each time. The cruel and brutal nature of the abuse, along with the fact that she could have been saved if the police had taken action, attracted public grief and outrage.Child abuse is a serious problem in Korea. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of child abuse reports has risen dramatically by 115% over the last five years from 19,214 in 2015 to 41,389 reports in 2019.

Hwang Ha-na, granddaughter of the Namyang Dairy Products’ founder, received a one-year suspended prison sentence with two years’ probation for drug abuse in 2019. Hwang purchased and injected herself with methamphetamine multiple times. On Dec. 7, 2020, Hwang was prosecuted again for using drugs with her acquaintances. While Hwang Ha-na’s first drug test returned negative results, the case became more complicated as her husband committed suicide and one of her acquaintances, suspected to be the supplier of the drugs, also made a suicide attempt but ended up in a coma. This incident exposed dru

Last December, the United Kingdom (UK) became the first nation to authorize and to begin vaccinating its citizens. On Dec. 2, 2020, the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. More than 600,000 UK citizens have received the vaccine. The first COVID-19 vaccines are being introduced in not only the UK but also in other countries. Middle Eastern and Latin American countries, such as Mexico, have secured vaccines and have started mass vaccinations. China and Russia, which have self-developed vaccines, have also be

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) approved the world’s first cultured meat sales on Dec. 2, 2020. The approved cultured meat is produced by a U.S.-based food technology start-up, Eat Just, which develops plant-based and lab-grown protein sources. Eat Just demonstrated that its lab-grown chicken went through rigorous consultation and review processes and that the analysis assured the safety and quality of the cultured chicken. The harvested lab-grown chicken met the standards of poultry meat, containing high protein, high monounsaturated fats, and a significantly cleaner microbiological content c

Big-tech companies are entering the securities industry. Following KakaoPay Securities, on Nov. 18, 2020, Toss Securities received approval from the Financial Services Commission for the securities industry. Toss Securities plans to introduce the service within the first half of the year. A comparison of these two major security companies shows the current situation of the mobile securities industry.Similarities There are many similarities between the two companies in that they are mobile securities companies created by Big-techs. KakaoPay Securities and Toss Securities are both mobile securit

The murder of the French middle-school teacher Samuel Paty on Oct. 16 shook the world. Paty presented a cartoon of Muhammad from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in his class to teach freedom of expression. Although he advised his Muslim students to leave the classroom if they deemed his teaching inappropriate, Paty’s lecture offended some Muslims, leading one of the parents to file a complaint. The parent also claimed on multiple social media platforms that Paty showed an image of a naked Muhammad to his students and exposed the teacher’s name and the school address. An 18-year-old Muslim

COVID-19, since its emergence in Wuhan, China in Dec. 2019, still holds a strong influence in everyone’s daily life. Governments and medical institutions strive to provide appropriate care diagnosis, recovery, and quarantine of confirmed or probable patients. As no definite cure for the disease has yet been discovered, prevention measures are emphasized in every country to stop the further manifestation of COVID-19. Along with social distancing, the most prominent means to prevent COVID-19 is to wear masks. Not only masks but gloves and many other hygiene products have become daily essentials

Since ancient times, when it was named Ares by the ancient Greeks, Mars has been a great mystery. For a long time, humankind could only gaze at Mars, but the advance in technology allowed them to send spacecraft to the red planet. However, these spacecraft can only be launched during a specific time: the “launch window”.The “launch window” is a crucial time for rocket launch that comes every 2.2 years when travel between the two planets is most cost-effective: the spacecraft can maneuver in the “Hohmann transfer orbit” which consumes the lowest possible amount of propellant. As the launch wind

On July 29, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet (parent company of Google) went through a five-hour congressional grilling as lawmakers on the House’s top antitrust subcommittee confronted the executives for abusing their market dominance to neutralize potential competitors and even threaten consumers.Representative David Cicilline, the chairman of the antitrust subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, opened a congressional investigation of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, aiming to provide the basis for proposals on ho

On May 25, a Black man named George Floyd was brutally suffocated by a police officer. Police brutality acted upon the Black man was captured in videos recorded by witnesses and went viral. The lingering issues of racial discrimination were yet again exposed, and it sparked the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement—an advocate for non-violent protests against governmental violence inflicted on Black people—around the globe.BLM movement first started in 2013 to issue racial conflict regarding the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Since then, BLM demonstrated against unjust police actions that killed Blac

With the introduction of new privacy measures in iOS 14 Beta that warns users when apps try to track location or personal data, dozens of popular apps have been caught snooping on the user’s clipboard with no clear reason. The popular app TikTok, for example, has been storing this data every time the user types something. While TikTok did announce that this was merely an “anti-spam feature” and will be removed from the app, this entire issue raises multiple concerns: what information have companies taken from us? What about Android or other operating systems? Who is there to trust?About Clipbo

A serious sexual abuse crime that targeted women, including the underaged girls, is enraging Korea. The crime happened on a messaging service application, Telegram, and the crime took place in two main group chats: “Nth Room” and “Doctor Room.”Revealing the crimeIn July 2019, the tracer group “Flame” found out that group chats sharing sexually exploitative illegal material were operating on Telegram. Through infiltration investigation, “Flame” confirmed the existence of “Nth Room” and reported it to the press. After The Hankyoreh reported it, the crime was publicized, and group “ReSET” was cre

It has been approximately six months since China’s first report of COVID-19 (Dec. 31, 2019) and three months since the WHO’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic (March 11, 2020). The world has faced until now 6,161,931 confirmed cases and 371,023 death. Many countries were forced to impose lockdowns and social distancing measures to prevent further spread of the pandemic. However, the virus continues to spread into new countries and many experts predict that the pandemic will not cease until at least end of the year.Korea overall has confirmed a total of 11, 468 cases and 270 deaths due to t

On Jan. 3, 2020, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Gen Qasem Soleimani, was killed by a U.S. drone attack in Iraq. The tension in the Middle East escalated dramatically and the dispute between the U.S. and Iran is unlikely to end easily.A Brief Recent History between the U.S. and IranIn 2015, Iran signed a nuclear agreement called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with a group of world powers known as the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany). Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors from the In

Australia is devasted by an on-going wildfire that has been inflicting severe damage to both Australian society and the ecosystem. Named as the ‘2019-20 Australian bushfire season’, it is cited to be the worst wildfire seen in decades as the fire shows no indication of being extinguished, burning for over 5 months, since September 2019. The Australian summer is notorious for its fire season. The dry, hot weather of Australia composes perfect conditions for blazes to start and spread. Fire seasons in Australia have caused catastrophes before; 1974-75 bushfires consumed over 100 million hectares

A series of K-pop audition show "Produce" by Mnet cable TV has been found to have been rigged in rankings across all seasons, sparking controversy.The "Produce" Series is a series of survival audition shows to make new K-pop group, that have aired on a yearly basis since 2016. The show put forward the phrase "Vote Your Boy/Girl!" The idea is to create a global idol group through a vote by viewers. In spite of the problems including malicious editing, the talent show was the biggest buzz. It was the only idol audition program that made it out to season 4 due to its popularity.The vote-rigging a

Civic awareness refers to a concept about the mental attitude about the members of a modern society. Although no exact standard exists, the civic awareness of a country is judged by the etiquette and morality of the citizens of that country. Usually, the national and personal moral values have a great influence on the level of civil consciousness, and those who lack this sense of citizenship could make a national disgrace by causing a civil nuisance in their own or other countries.Modern Korea is one of the countries that have rather good civic awareness in the world. Still, it has a lot of ro