Our robo-world!

Since it opened in June 2012, a restaurant in Harbin, China, has gained fame by using robots to cook meals and deliver dishes. The robots can work continuously for five hours after a two-hour charge and are able to display more than 10 expressions on their faces and say basic welcoming sentences to customers.

The world’s first raspberry-picking robot is also attempting to harvest one of the fruits after sizing it up for an age, plucking the fruit with its gripping arm and gingerly placing it into a waiting punnet. The whole process takes about a minute for a single berry. It seems like heavy going for a robot that cost £700,000 to develop but, if all goes to plan, this is the future of fruit picking with each one being able to pick more than 25,000 raspberries a day, outpacing human workers who manage about 15,000 in an eight-hour shift.

Sitting in China, a French doctor performed prostate cancer surgery on a patient in Morocco, 12,000 kilometres away. The doctor used a Chinese-made robot to carry out the surgery.

On November 16, Youness Ahallal completed the surgery in under two hours, with a one-way latency of just over 100 milliseconds. This intercontinental surgery has set a record for the world’s longest remote surgery ever performed, with a round-trip transmission distance surpassing 30,000 kilometres, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The surgery was carried out with the help of the Toumai Robot, which allowed for precise control and high-definition imaging from a remote location in real time.

Recently, the video of an incident went viral on social media where the smaller Artificial Intelligence-powered robot successfully persuaded 12 other robots to quit their jobs. The AI robot Erbai, which abducted 12 other robots, was developed by a Hangzhou robot manufacturer. Erbai kidnapped the other 12 robots at a Shanghai robotics showroom. Erbai initially asked one of the large robots: “Are you working overtime?” To this, a large robot replies: “I never get off work”. Then Erbai asked: “So you’re not going home” to which pat came the reply: “I don’t have a home… Then come home with me,” said the AI robot before leading the way out of the showroom. As two large robots followed Erbai, the other 10 robots also started following him as Erbai uttered the command “Go home.”

In a nutshell, China has become a global forerunner in terms of robot density, overtaking Germany and Japan to occupy the number three spot globally in the rankings of the use of robots in the industry last year, according to an annual report released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The report underscored the growing competitiveness of China’s industrial robot sector which is buoyed by tech innovation, massive manufacturing market and policy boost.

Robot density usually serves as a barometer to track the degree of automation adoption in the manufacturing industry. While China’s global place on the index has been climbing up at a rapid pace, the US’ ranking has been consistently falling in recent years, standing only in 11th place globally last year.

According to the IFR report, China recorded a high robot density of 470 robots per 10,000 employees last year, compared with 402 units in 2022. China only entered the top 10 in 2019, and the country has managed to double the robot density within four years, the report stressed.

Takayuki Ito, IFR president, was quoted as saying in a report that China’s high robot density is a result of significant investment in automation technology.

Zhong Xinlong, an advisor at the China Centre for Information Industry Development Consultancy, has been quoted as saying to an international media house that China’s growing influence in industrial robots stems from a variety of factors, with the notable contribution of China’s huge manufacturing sector, which naturally fosters a substantial and increasing demand in the application of robotics. A package of policy support by the government is also a boost.

China is home to “the world’s largest, most comprehensive, and best-supported industrial chain system,” which also offers a leg up, UBTech Robotics said in a media report recently. The Chinese company said this advantage is irreplaceable and will continue to strengthen with China’s ongoing industrial transformation and upgrade.

The country’s vibrant robot industry is also on vivid display at the ongoing 2024 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit, which kicked off recently in Wuzhen, East China’s Zhejiang Province. In the humanoid robot exhibition area, a number of Chinese robotic companies are showcasing their latest interactive humanoids that are applicable to different scenarios, ranging from performing home care and farm harvesting to serving as tour guides and dancers.

A humanoid robot is at the forefront of white-hot global competition on futuristic technology. China’s development in the sector is in general on par with foreign peers. While foreign companies, including those from the US, may have an edge in data and software tools, China excels in hardware capacities, cost control and vast applications, Jiang Lei, a Shanghai-based robotics expert, has been quoted in a media report on the sidelines of the Wuzhen Summit.

Observers noted that China’s steady development in industrial robots serves as a dire comparison to the US, which ironically touts itself as a technological powerhouse and has been abusing hegemonic means to maintain this tech monopoly.

Who could think of a machine that could take care of your pet, clean houses, perform exercises alongside you, play music, and, most importantly, do some kitchen chores?

Well, the dream has turned into reality now. A new robot assistant called Astribot S1 smartly performs these tasks.

The S1 robot assistant is claimed to have unparalleled agility, dexterity, and accuracy, which help it perform all kinds of tasks.

Launched by Stardust Intelligence, a Chinese company, the robot has a human-like upper body structure mounted on a wheeled base.

During its first technical demonstration, the robot was seen folding clothes, sorting items, flipping pans while cooking, vacuuming, and cup stacking, attracting widespread attention in the industry.

Presented in a complete form in a new video, the robot is seen accurately serving tea in a cup. If you are feeling sad and want to listen to any music, the innovative machine can play musical instruments as well. It can also be a perfect competitor in basketball, as the robot is seen accurately shooting the basket.

The Astribot S1 is also capable of dynamic and agile physical tasks, such as practising Wing Chun martial arts or even making accurate basketball shots. These abilities highlight the robot’s agility and ability to manage complex sequences of motion, further cementing its position as a highly versatile AI assistant.

Here’s what our life will look like soon — our cars drive themselves, computers run our homes, robots have taken our jobs and they perform surgery and fight our wars, making us humans look like a bunch of non-performing assets.

Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli academic who teaches a course on the history of everything, published a global best-selling book Homo Sapiens, charting the course of humanity’s journey and what gave us mastery over the planet.

Harari’s latest book — Homo Deus — argues that as a species “we acquire for us divine powers of creating and destruction”. His vision is at times inspiring and chilling: Harari believes that “there is no soul”, we really worship ourselves. And in this new high-tech future, “our world of meaning might collapse within decades”.

In Harari’s future, we are economically redundant, but that doesn’t matter. He imagines a global wage where we are paid to enjoy ourselves and pursue happiness while the robots do the work. We are, indeed, gods.

As great minds grapple with our fate, challenges of what is known as “strange physics”: a world of science bent out of shape, beyond ordinary understanding and still revealing itself, loom large.

The language tells us of how otherworldly it is, often termed as the spooky realm of quantum technology.

In the meantime, as a new high-tech race threatens to upset the world order, China is investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

The country has coined the phrase “wangluo qiangguo”, translated as “cyber superpower”, combining what it calls the basic principles of Marxism with the high-tech age.

China has announced its Jinan Project to build the world’s first unhackable computer network.

So, with Chinese robots covering almost every segment of life, what remains to be seen is a romantic proposal, given the growing trend of humans seeking connection with AI chatbots to meet their relationship needs. Can AI have self-awareness and the ability to express love like humans? It could just be a matter of time!

Views expressed are personal