In this blog post, we will look at how the Fourth Industrial Revolution, centered on artificial intelligence, will change our daily lives and society.
“Jarvis!” In the movie Iron Man, the main character Tony Stark calls his artificial intelligence assistant Jarvis as if he were a person, giving him orders and assigning him complex tasks. Jarvis is a high-performance AI system that recognizes voice commands, engages in conversation, and performs various tasks, sparking excitement about the future of technology among many people. A few years later, in 2016, AI once again captured the public’s attention when AlphaGo, an AI system developed by Google, defeated Lee Sedol in a game of Go. The rapid development of AI technology soon led to the massive trend known as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” and we are now at the center of it.
In 2024, the world is undergoing the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” centered on artificial intelligence and digital technology. The “Fourth Industrial Revolution” does not simply mean technological advancement. This wave of innovation is transforming the structure of society as a whole, redefining industrial paradigms, and deeply influencing everyday life. In particular, with the emergence of generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) in recent years, AI has evolved beyond a mere tool to become an “intelligent companion” capable of collaborating with humans and even creating new content.
The term “Fourth Industrial Revolution” was first officially mentioned at the World Economic Forum (Davos Forum) in 2016. Klaus Schwab, the forum’s founder, defined it as “a technological revolution that merges the boundaries between digital, bio, and physical technologies, building on the Third Industrial Revolution.” This refers not to the emergence of new technologies but to a societal transformation driven by the convergence and advancement of existing technologies. In other words, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is an era in which various technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud computing, biotechnology, robotics, and quantum computing are combined to create new value, based on the information and communication technology (ICT) developed in the Third Industrial Revolution.
The core keywords of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are “hyperconnectivity” and “superintelligence.” Hyperconnectivity refers to the phenomenon of people, objects, services, and infrastructure being connected in real time through the Internet, while superintelligence refers to the ability of AI to analyze and process the vast amounts of data collected through such connections to enable insights and decision-making that surpass those of humans. For example, AI-based personalized services are becoming deeply integrated into our daily lives. AI assistants on smartphones analyze users’ schedules and habits to provide notifications, while streaming services analyze users’ preferences to recommend content. Korean technologies such as “Kakao AI Speaker” and “Naver Clova” go beyond simple command execution, learning from user data to respond with increasing precision.
In this way, AI is naturally becoming part of our lives and promoting innovation across all industries. In the medical field, AI is being used to read images and assist with diagnoses, while in the financial industry, it is analyzing customer consumption patterns to suggest customized financial products and detect abnormal transactions in real time. In the manufacturing sector, smart factories are being introduced to increase productivity and reduce defect rates, and AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in various fields such as autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots.
In particular, since 2023, there has been an explosive increase in social interest with the rapid rise of generative AI. As AI has become capable of generating various types of content, such as text, images, voice, and video, it is now performing practical tasks in many areas, including content creation, customer service, programming, and translation. For example, a small business introduced GPT-based AI into its customer service chatbot, reducing work time by more than half, and teachers are using generative AI to prepare lesson materials, thereby improving the quality of education.
However, there are also concerns. According to a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center in the US, 55% of respondents expressed concern about the possibility of AI replacing jobs, and many also expressed anxiety about AI spreading misinformation or making biased decisions. In fact, issues related to AI ethics, transparency, and accountability are currently among the hottest topics of discussion. The European Union (EU) passed the “AI Act” in 2024 to establish regulatory standards for high-risk AI systems, and South Korea is also discussing the enactment of “AI ethical standards” and “AI basic law.”
So, what exactly is artificial intelligence (AI)? Many people perceive AI as robots that think and speak like humans, but in reality, AI is a technical concept that refers to “intelligent computer systems” in general. The term AI was first proposed by American computer scientist John McCarthy at the Dartmouth Conference in 1956, who defined AI as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.” At the time, AI research did not receive much attention due to limited computing power and data, but today, thanks to the development of cloud computing, big data, and high-performance computing, we are entering an era where AI is achieving tangible results.
Current AI is developing in two main directions. One is “narrow AI,” which is specialized for specific tasks, and the other is “general AI,” which can perform a variety of tasks like humans. Most of the AI we currently use falls under the category of narrow AI, demonstrating accuracy and efficiency surpassing that of humans in specific tasks. However, recent generative AI is increasingly expanding toward the form of general AI, simultaneously holding both its potential and risks.
Ultimately, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and AI are like two horses pulling a cart in tandem. AI is the core engine and catalyst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, while the momentum of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has enabled the rapid advancement of AI technology. We are currently living in a time of tremendous change, and this technological transition could either improve the quality of life or become a source of uncertainty by threatening existing jobs.
What matters is how we accept and respond to this change. Technology is neutral. Whether it is beneficial or harmful depends on the choices made by people and society. Therefore, we should not blindly fear AI or view it as an object of unconditional hope, but rather continuously learn and reflect on how to develop and utilize it in the right direction.
Alvin Toffler once said, “The future cannot be predicted, but it can be invented.” In the 4th Industrial Revolution era alongside AI, we must not merely be passive followers of change but active creators who design and lead the future. In this massive wave of change, what truly matters is not the technology itself, but the human beings who wield it.
