Analysis of the key issues shaping the AI industry.
A clinical trial found an AI chatbot cut depressive symptoms nearly in half, while a study found that the more people rely on AI friends, the lonelier they get, and both landed at the same time. Whether AI becomes a treatment for the mind or a substitute for relationships that deepens isolation: we are at that fork now.
The GPU drought is over, and the contest is now decided by power. In 2026, the approval rate for data center grid connections in Korea's capital region fell to 1.9%, and in the US a $130 billion project was canceled 'for lack of power'. Is AI devouring the climate, or bringing the energy transition forward? This installment examines both faces with data.
August 2, 2026 has been billed for more than a year as the EU AI Act's most important date. But in November 2025 the European Commission unveiled its 'Digital Omnibus' package proposing to delay high-risk AI obligations by up to 16 months, and on May 7, 2026 the European Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement. The result is more than a schedule change. The ban on real-time facial recognition survived, but retrospective facial recognition and workplace and education AI obligations are pushed beyond December 2027. Here is how the 'world's first AI regulation' wobbled, and what remained intact.
Korea has one of the world's highest CCTV densities per capita, holds an EU GDPR adequacy decision, and on January 22, 2026 became the first country in the world to fully enforce an AI Basic Act. The infrastructure is in place and the legal system is aligned. But the real question lies elsewhere: where is Korea's balance point being formed, and what is missing? From the 158 Smart Pass gates to the global expansion of Suprema and Alchera and the subordinate rules of the AI Basic Act, a data-driven look.
The 'Orwellian single citizen score' that Western media have depicted is far from what China's social credit system actually looks like. But that does not mean the danger is exaggerated. The real threat lies elsewhere: inter-ministry data is being integrated, precision targeting infrastructure such as Uyghur tracking is in operation, and the model itself is being exported to some 60 countries along the Digital Silk Road. A data-centered look at the changes the new 2025–2026 guidelines have brought.
The future shaped by AI and facial recognition forks in two directions. On one side is a utopia that protects privacy while maximizing social benefit; on the other, a dystopia in which everyday life is reduced wholesale to data. Looking evenly at the three axes of technology, regulation, and national models as of 2026, the conclusion is clear: neither is inevitable, and everything depends on how governance is designed.
Google I/O 2026, held on May 19 (local time) at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, came down to one message: 'from assistant to agent'. From Gemini 3.5 Flash, Spark, and Antigravity 2.0 to Android XR glasses and the overhaul of Search, here is a one-stop summary of the message Google delivered as a full-stack AI company.
In March 2026, 96% of battlefield casualties in Ukraine were caused by drones. In April, for the first time in history, an enemy position was captured by unmanned platforms alone. The way war is fought is changing, but the suffering war brings is not. When the enemy comes with drones, will we fight with hand grenades? Thoughts from a citizen of a divided nation.
$134 billion in damages, the fate of a $1 trillion IPO, and the future of the nonprofit AI model are being decided in an Oakland courtroom. Now in its third week, we analyze the issues in the Musk v. Altman trial and the impact on the AI industry under each verdict scenario.
In 2026, the AI industry is no longer decided by 'which model is smarter'. The Anthropic–SpaceX compute deal, the Pentagon's selection of eight AI vendors, and Goldman Sachs' $7.6 trillion forecast all point one way: the true opening of an 'AI compute economy' in which tokens are the new currency. Korean companies must immediately realign around a three-axis strategy that binds 'token cost, power and chip supply, and use policy', beyond comparing model performance.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has secured an option to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion. This is not a simple technology add-on but a strategic signal of a business realignment into a 'space + AI' conglomerate.
Adobe acquired SEO platform Semrush for about $1.9 billion, going all-in on a strategy to own 'brand visibility' in the era of generative AI search. This is not a mere martech merger but a structural shift arriving at the moment the paradigm of search itself is changing.
While AI tutors raise learning outcomes by 23%, 70% of students feel their own thinking is getting weaker. Korea was the first in the world to pour 1.4 trillion won into AI digital textbooks, only to see the effort collapse within four months. The problem was not the technology. The problem was bringing in the tools before answering the question 'what should we teach?'
Global statistics point to a net gain of 78 million jobs by 2030, yet the Bank of Korea reports that 210,000 youth jobs vanished in the three years after ChatGPT launched. Here is why opposite conclusions come from the same phenomenon, and why even I, in my mid-40s, am not free of this problem.
