{"slug": "faced-with-shrinking-population-korea-s-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman", "title": "Faced with shrinking population, Korea's Navy tests humanoid helmsman", "summary": "The Korean Navy conducted its first combat experiment using PIBOT, a humanoid robot developed by KAIST with 5.7 billion won ($4.1 million) in defense funding, to replace human sailors at the helm amid a shrinking population. In a bridge simulator, PIBOT processed verbal orders via a large language model, repeated commands, and physically steered the ship, demonstrating a high-tech solution to Korea's military recruitment crisis.", "body_md": "Inside a naval bridge simulator in the southern coastal city of Changwon, an officer issued a sharp navigational command: \"Port five degrees, hold course 330!\" The voice that echoed back was not that of a young sailor, but the metallic confirmation of a humanoid robot. \"Port five degrees, hold course 330,\" the machine repeated, its mechanical hands gripping the wheel to adjust the ship's heading before reporting completion: \"Holding course 330.\" The Korean Navy conducted Thursday its first-ever combat experiment utilizing PIBOT, a physical artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid robot designed to replace human sailors at the helm. Developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) with 5.7 billion won ($4.1 million) in defense funding, the initiative represents a high-tech gamble to solve a looming national existential crisis: a demographic cliff that is rapidly draining the country's military recruitment pool. The simulation tested PIBOT’s ability to process verbal orders via a large language model, repeat commands to avoid miscommunication and physically manipu", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/faced-with-shrinking-population-korea-s-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman", "canonical_source": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/defense/20260724/faced-with-shrinking-population-koreas-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman?utm_source=rss", "published_at": "2026-07-24 03:22:03+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-24 03:27:28.144712+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["robotics", "artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Korean Navy", "PIBOT", "KAIST", "Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology", "Changwon"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/faced-with-shrinking-population-korea-s-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/faced-with-shrinking-population-korea-s-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/faced-with-shrinking-population-korea-s-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/faced-with-shrinking-population-korea-s-navy-tests-humanoid-helmsman.jsonld"}}