INTERVIEW: Korean startups race to bring lab-grown meat to market

SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - Donning a white lab coat and sterile shoe covers, Dominic Jeong, CEO of South Korean food-tech startup Simple Planet, leads the way through a sleek laboratory buzzing with quiet precision. He opens a chilled cabinet and carefully lifts out petri dishes filled with ivory-white clusters. “These are cultivated animal cells — cow fat and chicken muscle tissue,” Jeong told AJP. “We transform them into protein-rich powders and pastes.&rdqu

June 26, 2025

POSTECH, LG unveil breakthrough in 6G communication

SEOUL, June 18 (AJP) - South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and LG Electronics have jointly announced the development of the world’s first multimodal, multitask semantic communication system — a major step toward realizing the promise of 6G. The announcement was made at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2025), held in Montreal. The technology, a product of collaboration between Professor Lee Nam-yoon's ele

June 18, 2025

State institute KAIST partners with Naver to develop app for autistic children

SEOUL, May 18 (AJP) - South Korea's leading science and technology institute, KAIST, has joined hands with Naver Cloud AI Lab to develop a smartphone application designed to help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) communicate more effectively with their parents. KAIST announced on Sunday that the newly developed app, called “AAcess Talk,” was created through a collaboration between its research team and the artificial intelligence lab under Naver, the cou

May 18, 2025

Studio Meta-K secures Series A investment from Korea Investment Partners to lead future of AI-powered content

SEOUL, April 11 (AJP) - Studio Meta-K, a South Korean startup specializing in AI-based content IP production, announced on April 10 that it has raised 2 billion won from Korea Investment Partners as part of a 3 billion won Series A funding round. The investment aims to support the company’s efforts to revolutionize content production using proprietary AI and virtual human technologies. Studio Meta-K describes itself as South Korea’s first full-service studio to combine

April 11, 2025

DeeprRoute.ai CEO touts AI-native driving system as industry game-changer

SEOUL, April 08 (AJP) - Maxwell Zhou, CEO of Chinese autonomous driving company DeeprRoute.ai, has showcased the company’s end-to-end AI-powered technology during his keynote speech at the Seoul Mobility Show held at KINTEX northwest of Seoul on Tuesday, saying the firm’s Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model has ushered in a new era of scalability, transparency, and human-level decision-making in smart driving systems. “This is not just a technological shift,&rdquo

April 8, 2025

Hyodol to showcase AI-powered companion robot at MWC in Barcelona

SEOUL, February 26 (AJP) - South Korean robotics company Hyodol is showcasing its latest artificial intelligence-powered companion robot at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), which kicked off its four-day run in Barcelona, Spain earlier this week. Hyodol said Thursday that its latest innovation for the annual trade show is a feature called "Advanced Voice Mode," which allows for smoother, more natural conversations. According to Hyodol, the new feature enabl

February 26, 2025

Trump warns of tariffs over foreign regulations on U.S. tech firms

SEOUL, February 22 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he would take strong action, including tariffs, against foreign governments imposing unfair regulations on American tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Meta. “What they’re doing to us in other countries is terrible with digital,” Trump said on Friday, directing his administration to address what he described as unfair trade practices harming U.S. companies. He accused foreign governments o

February 22, 2025

Hanwha Robotics installs cooking robots at highway rest stop

SEOUL, February 16 (AJP) - Hanwha Robotics announced Sunday that it has installed five cooking robots at a highway rest stop in the southeastern city of Daegu. The robots, called "HCR-5A," are now operating at the Nongong Rest Area and can prepare more than five types of dishes, including pork cutlets, udon, and instant noodles, known as ramyeon. “With this deployment, customers at Nongong Rest Area will now have access to food court services 24 hours a day,&rdq

February 16, 2025

Trump's tariff plan for steel, aluminum imports rekindles trade tensions

SEOUL, February 10 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports, a move that could disrupt trade relations with key allies, including South Korea. The decision builds upon tariffs first introduced during Trump’s initial term - 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum - which had previously allowed exemptions for select trading partners through duty-free quotas. South Korea, the fourth-largest suppl

February 10, 2025

Telecom companies making progress in quantum cybersecurity

SEOUL, February 07 (AJP) - South Korea’s three major telecommunications companies - SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus - are intensifying efforts to commercialize quantum encryption technology, positioning themselves as key players in the business-to-business security market. While each company has made notable progress in advancing and securing quantum encryption solutions, full monetization remains a long-term prospect. Quantum encryption is emerging as a critical defense aga

February 7, 2025