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.
"There are many more opportunities for experimentation."
reb/sco
Melden Sie sich an, um Ihr Portfolio aufzurufen.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How US adults are using AI, according to AP-NORC polling
Most U.S. adults say they use artificial intelligence to search for information, but fewer are using it for work, drafting email or shopping. Younger adults are most likely to be leaning into AI, with many using it for brainstorming and work tasks. The new findings from an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll show that 60% of Americans overall — and 74% of those under 30 — use AI to find information at least some of the time. The poll highlights the ubiquity of AI in some areas — as well as its limits in others. Only about 4 in 10 Americans say they have used AI for work tasks or coming up with ideas, a sign that the tech industry's promises of highly productive AI assistants still haven't touched most livelihoods after years of promotion and investment. At the same time, wider AI adoption by younger Americans shows that could change. There's a particularly large age divide on brainstorming: About 6 in 10 adults under age 30 have used AI for coming up with ideas, compared with only 2 in 10 of those age 60 or older. Young adults are also more likely to use AI to come up with ideas at least 'daily.' Young adults are most likely to use AI Bridging the generations are people like Courtney Thayer, 34, who's embracing AI in some parts of her life and avoiding it in others. Thayer said she is regularly using ChatGPT to come up with ideas about planning what to eat, while also having it calculate the nutritional value of the pumpkin-banana-oat bread she's been baking for years. 'I asked it to make a meal prep for the week, then to add an Asian flair,' said Thayer, of Des Moines, Iowa. 'It wasn't the most flavorful thing I've ever had in my life, but it's a nice stepping off point. More importantly, I use it for the amount so that I'm not over-serving myself and ending up with wasted food.' The audiologist has embraced AI at work, too, in part because artificial intelligence is imbued in the hearing aids she recommends to patients but also because it makes it easier and faster to draft professional emails. She avoids it for important information, particularly medical advice, after witnessing chatbots 'hallucinate' false information about topics she spent years studying. Roughly 4 in 10 Americans say they use AI for work tasks at least sometimes, while about one-third say they use it for helping to write emails, create or edit images, or for entertainment, according to the poll. About one-quarter say they use it to shop. Younger adults are more likely than older ones to say they have used artificial intelligence to help with various tasks, the poll shows. Searching for information is AI's most common use Of the eight options, searching for information is the most common way Americans have interacted with AI. And even that may be an undercount, since it's not always apparent how AI is surfacing what information people see online. For more than a year, the dominant search engine, Google, has automatically provided AI-generated responses that attempt to answer a person's search query, appearing at the top of results. Perhaps defying emerging media consumption trends, 28-year-old Sanaa Wilson usually skips right past those AI-generated summaries. 'It has to be a basic question like, 'What day does Christmas land on in 2025?'' said the Los Angeles-area resident. 'I'll be like, 'That makes sense. I trust it.' But when it gets to specific news, related to what's happening in California or what's happening to the education system and stuff like that, I will scroll down a little bit further.' Wilson, a freelance data scientist, does use AI heavily at work to help with coding, which she said has saved her hundreds of dollars she would have had to pay for training. She also occasionally uses it to come up with work-related ideas, an attempt to bring back a little of the collaborative brainstorming experience she remembers from college life but doesn't have now. When it first came out, Wilson said she also used ChatGPT to help write emails, until she learned more about its environmental impact and the possibility it would erode her own writing and thinking skills over time. 'It's just an email. I can work it out,' she said. 'However many minutes it takes, or seconds it takes, I can still type it myself.' Most don't use AI for companionship — but it's more common for young adults The least common of the eight AI uses was AI companionship, though even that showed an age divide. Just under 2 in 10 of all adults and about a quarter of those under 30 say they've used AI for companionship. Wilson has no interest in AI companions, though she isn't surprised that others do because of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on her generation's social experiences. 'I totally understand and sympathize behind why people in my age group are leveraging it in that way,' Wilson said. Thayer, the audiologist, also has no interest in AI companionship, though she tries to be polite with chatbots, just in case they're keeping track. 'I mean, I am nice to it, just because I've watched movies, right?' Thayer said, laughing. 'So I'll say, 'Can you make me a meal plan, please?' And, 'Can you modify this, please?' And then I'll say, 'Thank you.'' ___ The AP-NORC poll of 1,437 adults was conducted July 10-14, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cadence to pay $140m fine for illegal tech exports to China
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Cadence Design Systems has agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140m in penalties for exporting semiconductor design tools to a Chinese military university. The company based in San Jose, California, will pay nearly $118m in criminal penalties. This follows its admission of violating export controls by selling electronic design automation (EDA) technology to the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), which is associated with China's Central Military Commission. National Security Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said: 'Cadence has agreed to accept responsibility for unlawfully exporting sensitive semiconductor design tools to a restricted Chinese military university and has implemented a strong export compliance programme to help prevent any further illegal transmission of American technology. 'American ingenuity is one of our Nation's most precious assets, and the National Security Division will vigorously enforce US export control laws to protect the technological advantage we enjoy because of that ingenuity.' NUDT, added to the US Department of Commerce's Entity List in 2015, is believed to have used US-origin components to develop supercomputers for military purposes. From February 2015 to April 2021, Cadence and its subsidiary in China exported EDA tools without obtaining necessary licences, despite knowing NUDT's status on the Entity List. Cadence's court documents reveal employees facilitated exports to NUDT through Central South CAD Center (CSCC), an alias for the Chinese university. The company continued transactions until September 2020 when it ended its relationship with CSCC due to its ties with NUDT. The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) also announced a parallel civil enforcement settlement, with Cadence agreeing to pay over $95m in civil penalties. Further investigation revealed that employees concealed exports' true destination from Cadence's compliance personnel, said the DOJ. The employees also used aliases in communications to avoid detection. Additionally, Cadence transferred contracts from CSCC to Phytium Technology, another entity linked with NUDT. This was before placing Phytium on export hold in March 2021. Following the DOJ and BIS crediting Cadence's payments under the coordinated agreements, the company will pay a total of over $140m in combined net criminal and civil penalties and forfeiture. The resolution awaits approval from a federal judge in the Northern District of California. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and BIS's Office of Export Enforcement conducted investigations into the case. "Cadence to pay $140m fine for illegal tech exports to China" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
LG Innotek to take stake in lidar maker Aeva as part of $50 million deal
By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Aeva Technologies said on Tuesday that South Korean camera module maker LG Innotek will take an equity stake in Aeva as part of a $50 million strategic collaboration. Aeva makes lidar sensors that help vehicles and industrial equipment gain a detailed three-dimensional view of their environment and detect how fast surrounding objects are moving. It supplies sensors to vehicle firms such as Daimler Truck and industrial equipment makers such as Nikon. As part of the deal, LG Innotek will make a $32 million equity investment in Aeva for a "single-digit percentage ownership" in the company, Aeva CEO Soroush Salehian told Reuters in an interview. The remainder of the deal will go toward building production capacity for sensors that can go into robotics and consumer devices, in addition to Aeva's existing markets of vehicles and industrial equipment. 'The ultimate goal of this partnership is for LG Innotek and Aeva to grow together as key players leading the next-generation lidar market through a long-term technology partnership that goes beyond the supply of products,' the South Korean electronics supplier's CEO, Hyuksoo Moon, said in a statement. Salehian told Reuters that Aeva is working to integrate its entire sensor into a single chip whose price can be driven low enough to make it viable in consumer electronics such as augmented reality headsets. "The roadmap that we're going towards is double-digit dollars," Salehian told Reuters. "We are already working towards the next generation that will allow for a very low-cost solution, which we think will be a game changer for mass adoption of what we call precision sensing."
