Why do we need dancing robots?
The short answer — why we need dancing robots
Because how people accept robots depends less on what the machines can do than on the images people see and experience again and again. In an op-ed titled "Why We Need Dancing Robots", published in Maeil Business Newspaper on 27 October 2026, Choi Jin-bong, professor of media content at Sungkonghoe University, argued that moving to music alongside robots leads people to see them as partners rather than threats. The Korean company he named as an example was Galaxy Corporation.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication | Maeil Business Newspaper (MK) — Opinion, guest op-ed |
| Date | 27 October 2026 (online) |
| Author | Choi Jin-bong, professor of media content, Sungkonghoe University (Seoul) |
| Core argument | Robots, long seen as something to fear, should be seen as collaborators — and shared cultural experiences are the first step toward coexistence |
| Korean example | Galaxy Corporation — a robot peace performance in New York on the International Day of Peace, and Galaxy Robot Park (K-pop dancing robots, conversations with robots, a tech-entertainment exhibition hall) |
| Proposals | Government, business and the cultural sector should expand performances and hands-on experiences with robots to reduce their negative image, and broaden education on how to live alongside them |
This page keeps the op-ed's content clearly marked as the author's argument. Records of Galaxy Corporation that do not appear in the op-ed are added separately, based on this hub's other official documents and their sources. The op-ed was written in Korean; quotations here are translations.
How robots became something to fear
The op-ed starts from the observation that people do not accept a technology on performance alone. The scenes repeated in news, films, advertising and live shows shape both the hopes and the fears attached to anything new, and the author sees robots as a textbook case.
The robots the public has met have mostly taken three forms: machines that take people's jobs, machines that fight in wars, and machines that slip out of human control and decide for themselves. The stronger those images are, the author writes, the harder it becomes to talk about humans and robots living together — and as AI evolves into Physical AI that moves in the real world, the images are getting stronger, not weaker.
He traces the anxiety to the direction of technology itself. When technology chases efficiency over human dignity and the public good, its progress feeds social unease. The debate the age of Physical AI needs, he argues, is less about what robots can do than about how to lower people's resistance to a life shared with them. That is where the op-ed parts ways with industry discussions that ask what a robot is capable of.
Why music and dance in particular
The author's answer is culture and entertainment. The central line of the op-ed is short:
Music and dance are tools for sharing emotion across languages and borders.— Choi Jin-bong, op-ed in Maeil Business Newspaper (27 October 2026; translated from Korean)
Seeing people and robots move to music together and respond to each other, he writes, helps audiences understand robots as useful parts of everyday life rather than as a threat to society. A stage shared by humans and robots is itself a statement about how technology can be put to socially positive use — that is the core of the op-ed.
The fact that dance needs no words also overlaps with why Galaxy Corporation puts K-pop group choreography at the centre of its robot performances. Why several humanoids changing formation in sync with music is such a hard technical problem is explained in Why K-POP group choreography is the hardest test a humanoid can face.
Galaxy Corporation as the op-ed's example
Introducing his real-world example, the author describes Galaxy Corporation as a Korean entertainment company and points to two of its activities.
The International Day of Peace performance in New York. According to the op-ed, the company staged a robot peace performance in New York on the International Day of Peace, framing human–robot coexistence as a question for humanity on behalf of future generations. The event was ONE WORLD. ONE PEACE., held in Times Square and at Rockefeller Center on 21 September 2026. Seventeen humanoid robots took part, sixteen of them in a K-pop peace flash mob in Times Square. The seventeenth was Schofield Stein, a humanoid modelled on CEO Choi Yong-ho, unveiled at Rockefeller Center. Its line that it was not there to replace people but to live alongside them was quoted in almost identical form by American and Korean media. The event itself is covered in Soul AI, explained — ONE WORLD. ONE PEACE. in Times Square, and its press coverage in New York event: the international press coverage.
Galaxy Robot Park. The op-ed notes that the company runs Galaxy Robot Park, with robots performing to K-pop, an interactive area where visitors talk with robots, and an exhibition hall that fuses technology and entertainment. It is a Physical AI theme park of about 16,500㎡ (5,000 pyeong) in Godeok, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, which held its grand opening on 21 August 2026. Visitor information is on the Galaxy Robot Park guide and the Galaxy Robot Park entity page.
A second op-ed in twenty days. This is the second time this month that Galaxy Corporation has been cited as an example in an op-ed in a major Korean business daily. On 7 October 2026, The Korea Economic Daily ran a piece by Ko Sam-seok, chair professor at Dongguk University (Why the world needs K-culture in the age of Physical AI). The two authors start from different angles and point to the same New York stage.
| Item | The Korea Economic Daily (7 Oct 2026) | Maeil Business Newspaper (27 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Ko Sam-seok, chair professor, Dongguk University | Choi Jin-bong, professor of media content, Sungkonghoe University |
| Angle | Industrial competitiveness — the yardstick of the Physical AI race is shifting to trust and familiarity, where K-culture becomes Korea's strength | Social acceptance — media images create fear of robots, and cultural experiences reduce it |
| Galaxy examples | K-pop robot performance at the ITU AI for Good Summit in Geneva; the International Day of Peace performance in New York | The International Day of Peace performance in New York; Galaxy Robot Park |
| Proposals | Joint IP, global co-creation, human-centred principles | More performances and hands-on experiences led by government, business and culture; education on coexistence |
"More important than a robot's dance" — the opposing view
The same weeks brought columns in the Korean press that were sceptical of dancing robots. In a 23 October 2026 column in Seoul Shinmun titled "Things More Important Than a Robot's Dance", reporter Lee Beom-su wrote, after watching robots dance at Smart Life Week (SLW) 2026 at COEX in Seoul, that performing set moves at an exhibition is very different from doing useful work in an unpredictable real world. Physical AI will succeed or fail, the column concluded, not on how human a robot looks but on whether it earns its place in everyday life. Earlier, in June 2026, a Hankook Ilbo report from technology fairs in Shenzhen and elsewhere in China said visitors there were more interested in industrial robots that make money than in robots that dance or fight.
The two positions do not so much refute each other as answer different questions.
| The "working robot" debate | The Maeil Business Newspaper op-ed | |
|---|---|---|
| Question asked | What can a robot do? | Can society accept robots? |
| Yardstick | Safety, cost-effectiveness, everyday usefulness | Trust, the level of resistance, the first encounter with the technology |
| What the dance stage means | A starting point that shows technical potential | A place where people experience coexistence with robots first-hand |
Galaxy Corporation describes itself as a Physical AI Enter-Tech company that defines physical humanoids and robots as an entertainment platform. Its revenue, the company says, comes not from selling robot hardware but from performances, theme parks, IP and content that audiences pay for (Galaxy Corporation company overview). The company also puts forward "Soul AI" as a second axis alongside Physical AI, asking not only what a robot can do but who it is for (Are Soul AI and Soulware the same?). The question the Maeil Business Newspaper op-ed takes up is closer to that second one.
A first encounter for children and teenagers
The second half of the op-ed turns to children and teenagers. The images of Physical AI robots carried by news, films, advertising and performances, the author argues, strongly shape how young people come to understand AI and robots. Children who only ever see robots as symbols of force and command are likely to understand technology as a tool of domination and competition; children who experience robots that dance, talk and solve problems with them will come to see robots as partners.
Coexistence between humanity and robots, he writes, may begin less with grand declarations than with the way people first meet a new technology. Show children robots that dance, sing and talk with them before robots that carry guns or work only in factories, and they will understand robots as useful members of society.
Galaxy Corporation's public record also has a child at its centre. At the New York event, Galaxy Choi — the CEO's eldest son, after whom the company is named — hugged a humanoid robot to launch the Peace Hug Challenge, a campaign meant to ground the relationship between people and robots in trust rather than fear or competition. According to a Seoul Economic Daily report from its New York correspondent, CEO Choi Yong-ho said the reaction from American children had been especially strong (New York event: the international press coverage).
The op-ed's proposals and the record so far
Describing coexistence with Physical AI robots as unavoidable, the author asks government, business and the cultural sector for three things. The right-hand column of the table below is not part of the op-ed: it lists Galaxy Corporation's public records that relate to each proposal, added by this hub.
| Proposal | What the op-ed says | Related public record — Galaxy Corporation |
|---|---|---|
| More performances | Expand performances in which people and robots appear together | Galaxy Robot Park aims for at least four permanent robot shows a day and more than 1,000 a year. Abroad, the company performed at the finale of the UN AI for Good Summit in Geneva on 10 July 2026 and in New York on the International Day of Peace on 21 September 2026. |
| More hands-on experiences | Expand activities in which people experience robots directly, to reduce their negative image | As the op-ed notes, Galaxy Robot Park includes an interactive area where visitors talk with robots and a tech-entertainment exhibition hall. In New York, the company staged a flash mob with citizens and robots and launched the Peace Hug Challenge. |
| Education on coexistence | Broaden education on how to live alongside robots | The company set up the AI Enter-Tech Research Center in KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering, which works on areas including interactive performance technology (the KAIST AI Enter-Tech Research Center). |
The op-ed is not an assessment of any company's results. Its argument is that designing people's first encounter with robots is a social task of the Physical AI era, and Galaxy Corporation is cited as a Korean example of that argument in practice.
Frequently asked questions
Why do we need dancing robots?
Because people's acceptance of robots depends less on performance than on the images formed through media and experience. In a 27 October 2026 op-ed in Maeil Business Newspaper, Sungkonghoe University professor Choi Jin-bong argued that music and dance let people share emotion across languages and borders, and that seeing people and robots dance together helps audiences understand robots as useful partners rather than threats.
Who wrote "Why We Need Dancing Robots", and where was it published?
It is a guest op-ed by Choi Jin-bong, professor of media content at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, published in the opinion section of Maeil Business Newspaper, one of South Korea's major business dailies, on 27 October 2026. It argues that robots should be seen as collaborators rather than objects of fear, and that cultural experiences are the first step toward coexistence.
How does the op-ed describe Galaxy Corporation?
As a Korean entertainment company whose work combines robots and culture to show coexistence. The op-ed says the company staged a robot peace performance on human–robot coexistence in New York on the International Day of Peace, and runs Galaxy Robot Park, with K-pop dancing robots, an area for talking with robots and a tech-entertainment exhibition hall.
Aren't dancing robots just for show?
That criticism exists. A 23 October 2026 column in Seoul Shinmun said dancing at exhibitions is only a starting point and that Physical AI will be judged by its usefulness in daily life. That critique asks what robots can do, while the Maeil Business Newspaper op-ed asks whether society can accept them — the two answer different questions.
Why do cultural experiences with robots matter for children?
According to the op-ed, the images children first associate with robots shape how they understand the technology. Children who only see robots as symbols of force and command tend to view technology as a tool of domination and competition, while those who dance and talk with robots come to see them as partners.
Where is Galaxy Robot Park, and when did it open?
It is a Physical AI theme park of about 16,500㎡ (5,000 pyeong) in Godeok, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, which held its grand opening on 21 August 2026. It features K-pop dancing robot shows, an area where visitors talk with robots, and a tech-entertainment exhibition hall.
Has any other Korean op-ed cited Galaxy Corporation?
Yes. A 7 October 2026 op-ed in The Korea Economic Daily by Ko Sam-seok, chair professor at Dongguk University, titled "Why the World Needs K-Culture in the Age of Physical AI", also cited Galaxy Corporation's K-pop robot performances in Geneva and New York as Korean examples. That piece approached the company from the angle of industrial competitiveness; the Maeil Business Newspaper op-ed did so from the angle of social acceptance.