Serving craft beer, playing mahjong, stacking shelves and boxing, the dozens of humanoid robots at Shanghai\u2019s World AI Conference (WAIC) this weekend were embodiments of China\u2019s growing AI prowess and ambition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The annual event is primed at showcasing China\u2019s progress in the ever-evolving field of artificial intelligence, with the government aiming to position the country as a world leader on both technology and regulation as it snaps at the United States\u2019 heels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening the event on Saturday, Premier Li Qiang announced China would set up a new organisation for cooperation on AI governance, warning the benefits of development must be balanced with the risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the cavernous expo next door, the mood was more giddy than concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDemand is currently very strong, whether in terms of data, scenarios, model training, or artificial construction. The overall atmosphere in all these areas is very lively,\u201d said Yang Yifan, R&D director at Transwarp, a Shanghai-based AI platform provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s WAIC is the first since a breakthrough moment for Chinese AI this January when startup DeepSeek unveiled an AI model that performed as well as top US systems for an apparent fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organisers said the forum involved more than 800 companies, showcasing over 3,000 products \u2014 the undeniable crowd pleasers being the humanoid robots and their raft of slightly surreal party tricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one booth, a robot played drums, half a beat out of time, to Queen\u2019s \u201cWe Will Rock You\u201d while a man in safety goggles and a security vest hyped up a giggling crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other droids, some dressed in working overalls or baseball caps, manned assembly lines, played curling with human opponents or sloppily served soft drinks from a dispenser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While most of the machines on display were still a little jerky, the increasing sophistication year-on-year was clear to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chinese government has poured support into robotics, an area in which some experts think China might already have the upper hand over the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Hangzhou-based Unitree\u2019s stall, its G1 android \u2014 around 130 centimetres (four feet) tall, with a two-hour battery life \u2014 kicked, pivoted and punched, keeping its balance with relative fluidity as it shadowboxed around a ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of the conference\u2019s opening, Unitree announced it would launch a full-size humanoid, the R1, for under $6,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 \u2018Digital humans\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most high-tech helpers don\u2019t need hardware though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the expo, AI companions \u2014 in the form of middle-aged businessmen, scantily clad women and ancient warriors \u2014 waved at people from screens, asking how their day was, while other stalls ran demos allowing visitors to create their own digital avatars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tech giant Baidu on Saturday announced a new generation of technology for its \u201cdigital humans\u201d \u2014 AI agents modelled on real people, which it says are \u201ccapable of thinking, making decisions, and collaborating\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company recently ran a six-hour e-commerce broadcast hosted by the \u201cdigital human\u201d of a well-known streamer and another avatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two agents beat the human streamer\u2019s debut sales in some categories, Baidu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over ten thousand businesses are using the technology already, the department\u2019s head Wu Chenxia told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about the impact on jobs \u2014 one of the major concerns raised around widespread AI adoption \u2014 Wu insisted that AI was a tool that should be used to improve quality and save time and effort, which still required human input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, few visitors to the WAIC expo seemed worried about the potential ramifications of the back-flipping dog robots they were excitedly watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen it comes to China\u2019s AI development, we have a comparatively good foundation of data and also a wealth of application scenarios,\u201d said Transwarp\u2019s Yang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are many more opportunities for experimentation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Serving craft beer, playing mahjong, stacking shelves and boxing, the dozens of humanoid robots at Shanghai\u2019s World AI Conference (WAIC) this weekend were embodiments of China\u2019s growing AI prowess and ambition. The annual event is primed at showcasing China\u2019s progress in the ever-evolving field of artificial intelligence, with the government aiming to position the country as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[1870,3730,193,3731],"class_list":["post-8674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-humanoid","tag-news","tag-robot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8676,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions\/8676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}