ByteDance's AI robot system can fold clothes and do housework
The system uses artificial intelligence (AI) that allows robots to follow language commands and carry out tasks.
China, where ByteDance is based, has been developing the technology at lightning speed with the development of its DeepSeek and Manus.
According to chip designer Nvidia, robotics is the next phase of AI.
That's because while tech companies have been trying to build a general-purpose robot for years, programming robots is difficult. However, with AI, it becomes much easier.
What did ByteDance do?
ByteDance built a large-scale vision-language-action (VLA) model called GR-3, which allows robots to follow natural language commands and do general tasks.
GR-3 can be thought of as the brain of the robot.
ByteDance used a robot called ByteMini for the experiment. After GR-3 was inserted into it, the robot could put a shirt on a hanger and place it on a clothing rack.
Video by the company also shows the robot picking up household items and placing them in a designated spot. It could differentiate between sizes, successfully following commands to pick up the 'larger plate'.
It also completed tasks such as cleaning up the dining table.
ByteDance's Seed department, which heads the company's AI research and large language model (LLM) development, said it trained the model with image and text data and then fine-tuned it with data from humans interacting in virtual reality. It was also taught to copy the movements of real robots.
ByteDance appears to be increasingly focusing on AI, launching the Seed department in 2023.
The new development comes as TikTok is facing another threat of being banned in the US unless the company sells its American assets.
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick reiterated this on Thursday, saying, 'China can have a little piece or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece'.
'But basically, Americans will have control. Americans will own the technology, and Americans will control the algorithm,' Lutnick told CNBC, adding that if this doesn't happen, 'TikTok is going to go dark, and those decisions are coming very soon'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
7 hours ago
- France 24
Humanoid robots embodiment of China's AI ambitions
The annual event is primed at showcasing China's 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' heels. 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. But in the cavernous expo next door, the mood was more giddy than concerned. "Demand 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," said Yang Yifan, R&D director at Transwarp, a Shanghai-based AI platform provider. This year's 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. Organisers said the forum involved more than 800 companies, showcasing over 3,000 products -- the undeniable crowd pleasers being the humanoid robots and their raft of slightly surreal party tricks. At one booth, a robot played drums, half a beat out of time, to Queen's "We Will Rock You" while a man in safety goggles and a security vest hyped up a giggling crowd. 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. While most of the machines on display were still a little jerky, the increasing sophistication year-on-year was clear to see. 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. At Hangzhou-based Unitree's stall, its G1 android -- around 130 centimetres (four feet) tall, with a two-hour battery life -- kicked, pivoted and punched, keeping its balance with relative fluidity as it shadowboxed around a ring. Ahead of the conference's opening, Unitree announced it would launch a full-size humanoid, the R1, for under $6,000. 'Digital humans' Most high-tech helpers don't need hardware though. At the expo, AI companions -- in the form of middle-aged businessmen, scantily clad women and ancient warriors -- waved at people from screens, asking how their day was, while other stalls ran demos allowing visitors to create their own digital avatars. Tech giant Baidu on Saturday announced a new generation of technology for its "digital humans" -- AI agents modelled on real people, which it says are "capable of thinking, making decisions, and collaborating". The company recently ran a six-hour e-commerce broadcast hosted by the "digital human" of a well-known streamer and another avatar. The two agents beat the human streamer's debut sales in some categories, Baidu said. Over ten thousand businesses are using the technology already, the department's head Wu Chenxia told AFP. Asked about the impact on jobs -- one of the major concerns raised around widespread AI adoption -- Wu insisted that AI was a tool that should be used to improve quality and save time and effort, which still required human input. For now, few visitors to the WAIC expo seemed worried about the potential ramifications of the back-flipping dog robots they were excitedly watching. "When it comes to China's AI development, we have a comparatively good foundation of data and also a wealth of application scenarios," said Transwarp's Yang.
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
Donald Trump is on the verge of winning his trade war
When Donald Trump decided, in early spring, to abruptly suspend his unilateral tariffs after triggering a financial panic, the Financial Times published a sarcastic comment about the US president in early May, calling him "TACO" for "Trump always chickens out" in trade negotiations. This infuriated the head of state. "That's a nasty question," he said in the Oval Office of the White House after a journalist asked him about it. On July 15, Wall Street Journal columnist Greg Ip offered a less humorous but more direct evaluation: "Forget TACO. Trump is winning his trade war." The issue is not to defend Trump's trade policy – the WSJ called it "the dumbest trade war in history" – but to analyze whether the president is achieving the goals he set for himself. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is set to meet the US head of state in Scotland on Sunday, July 27, in a last-ditch effort to reach a deal before the August 1 deadline to avoid 30% tariffs on European goods. The WSJ columnist recalled that the president's intention was to impose the highest possible tariffs to protect American industry and fund all or part of the income tax. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used the argument of tariffs as a negotiating tool in an attempt to reassure US partners. But that was not Trump's concern.
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
'If a dictator issued a call for tenders to reopen gulags, some consulting firms would be ready to bid'
The British daily Financial Times revealed in early July that Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a major consulting firm, had carried out an assignment for an American security company, commissioned by an Israeli think tank, on the "reconstruction of Gaza." The study discussed the displacement of 500,000 Palestinians and assessed proposals – if one dares call them that – to make to Gazans, weighing which would be most effective: $9,000 in cash or $5,000 and four years of rent. A plan conceived without the residents, for a reconstruction without the survivors, billed at several million dollars. BCG apologized, fired those responsible, and gave up its fee. That might have been enough, if not for the countless deaths, horrors and suffering. We could pretend to forget the McKinsey controversy in the United States, in which the consulting firm recommended increasing opioid dosages to drive up prices. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people from overdoses. Once again, the firm expressed its "deep" regrets and, in 2024, reached a settlement of nearly a billion dollars to avoid litigation. Those fond of calculations will appreciate the irony. We could settle for these acts of contrition. A moment of nausea, before moving on. But it would be more useful to ask what makes these scandals possible. Like all businesses, consulting firms have "processes." No one is staffed on a project without approval. No new client is accepted without a risk analysis. No work is done outside the rules of deontology. Poorly known codes These rules do exist: Some firms refuse to work for the sex, gambling, or tobacco industries, others avoid certain countries. All of them establish "Chinese walls," supposedly protecting against conflicts of interest. But unlike regulated professions (lawyers or certified public accountants) or those with formal codes (like journalists), these rules are rarely published and often little known even to the consultants themselves. Everything depends on self-regulation.
