In the late 19th century, American railroad worker John Henry had a new steam drill and rock drilling confrontation at the tunnel construction site. He succeeded in breaking the machine with a hammer, but his heart stopped immediately after his victory and he died. His tragedy of beating machines but losing his life was the crystal of the horrors that humans felt during the Industrial Revolution. A representative example of the anxiety that machines will take away jobs is the UK's 'Ludite Movement' expressed as collective resistance. Handicrafts tried to protect their jobs by destroying textile machines, but they could not go against the huge trend of technology.

Now, the conflict between humans and machines is no longer a story in history books. The advance of humanoid robots, represented by Hyundai Motor's Atlas and Tesla's Optimus, is straining labor. It is a symbolic event that Hyundai Motor's labor union recently protested the plan to introduce Atlas, saying, "We cannot accept a single robot without a labor-management agreement." This is the first head-on collision between humans and physical artificial intelligence (AI) at the production site beyond just a rice bowl fight. It is obvious which company will choose between a robot that operates 24 hours a day with a price of 200 million won per unit and an annual maintenance cost of 14 million won or a worker who is at risk of strike with an annual salary of 130 million won. This is why the union hit Bae Soo-jin.

However, Hyundai Motor's labor union's response is not much different from the claims of horsemen who insisted on running wagons when the car first appeared. Attempts to physically prevent technological advances have historically ended in disastrous defeats. In the past, the "red flag law," in which Britain had a person run with a red flag in front of a car to protect the wagon industry, eventually became a self-imposed measure to give up the initiative in the automobile industry to Germany and the United States. With Tesla placing Optimus as an apprentice at its Austin, Texas, factory and launching a "manufacturing revolution," locking the door to technology is tantamount to giving up competitiveness on our own.

The cohabitation of a skilled engineer "Kim Technician" and a new employee "Atlas," who are the classmates of Hyundai Motor's factory, is now irreversible. The scene where a veteran wearing an oily work suit and a robot equipped with a state-of-the-art sensor stand side by side is an inevitable future. Now, what we have to think about is not how to kick out this smart newcomer, but how to cooperate and survive.

Andrew Ng, a professor at Stanford University and a master scholar in the field of AI, emphasized that "AI is not a replacement for humans, but a tool that amplifies human capabilities." Recurrent work and dangerous processes should be left to Atlas, which moves tirelessly and precisely, and technician Kim should evolve into a "commander of the field" who controls comprehensive judgments, responsibilities, and unexpected situations that robots cannot imitate. With the advent of the automobile industry, the profession of horseman has disappeared, but just as new occupations of drivers and mechanics have been created, robots and AI are likely to reorganize their employment through the emergence of new industries. It means that the "evolution of labor" can become a reality, not the "end of labor."

It is time to redesign the paradigm of labor in the direction of raising the human role to the next level rather than trying to stop the advancement of technology. Discussions on how to distribute the cost saved by the introduction of robots and the fruits of increasing productivity and how to support workers' retraining and job change can no longer be delayed.

Charles Darwin said, "The surviving species are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the species that best adapts to change." Even in the age of AI, where the cool prophecy of "the end of labor" is heard, this proposition is valid. The moment you lock the factory door for fear of technology, the cull begins. After all, the key to survival is adaptation, not resistance, and preemptive choice, not wait-and-see.

[Shim Yunhee, Editorial Writer]