Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics is showing off one of its humanoid robots.
Rimkus dynamics
BEIJING — Artificial intelligence like ChatGPT is accelerating research in China, home to many of the world’s factories, bringing humanoid robots closer to reality.
AI has been around for decades. What has changed with the advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot is that AI can now better understand and generate content in a human-like way.The US-based technology is not officially available in China, but local companies such as Baidu has released similar chatbots and AI models.
Li Zhang, chief operating officer of Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics, said that in robotics, the development of generative AI will help machines understand and recognize their environment.
About three months after joining the two-year-old startup, Mr. Lee is wondering how long it will take for LimX to produce a humanoid robot that can not only do factory work but also help around the home. He said he had shortened his predictions.
Li originally expected the entire process to take eight to 10 years, but now expects some use cases to be ready in five to seven years. “After working for a few months, I saw how AI has improved the capabilities of various tools,” he said in Mandarin (translated by CNBC).
“This has accelerated the entire research and development cycle,” he said.
Companies are rushing to seize this opportunity. OpenAI itself supports humanoid robots startupOn the other hand, Elon Musk tesla We have our own development called Optimus.
electric car giant BYD The company invested in Shanghai-based Agibot last year, just a few months after it was founded, according to PitchBook.
And at a high level, Chinese state media published a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping in November. looking at a humanoid robot At an exhibition center during my first visit to Shanghai since the pandemic. That robot is Developed by Fourier Intelligence.
As LimX ultimately intends, factories could be a favorable closed-door scenario for introducing humanoid robots before they become ubiquitous in homes.
According to the latest research from Stanford University, China overtook Japan in 2013 to become the country with the world’s largest industrial robot installations, and now accounts for more than 50% of the world’s total. AI index report.
According to the report, the three main fields for the introduction of industrial robots in China are electronics, automobiles, and metal/machinery.
Impact on human work
However, advances in AI alone will not be enough to completely replace human workers.
Even if AI allows robots to think and make decisions on par with humans, mechanical limitations are the main reason why humanoids cannot replace human workers, LimX’s Li said. Ta.
One of LimX’s backers, Future Capital, has also invested in a company called Pan Motor, which specializes in humanoid motors.
Eric Xia, a partner at Future Capital, an investor in LimX, pointed out that generative AI does not directly help robots move. But “advancements in large-scale language models could be useful for advanced task planning for humanoid robots,” he said in Chinese, translated by CNBC.
Other investors in LimX include Lenovo Capital.
Lowering the cost per robot could accelerate the transition to factory robots.
Steve Hoffman, chairman of a startup accelerator called Founders Space, said he is working with a Chinese startup called Fastra and expects to start mass producing robots within a year. He said he spent time in China this year teaching local companies how to integrate generative AI.
“We have already received six orders from research institutions,” he said, noting that the startup aims to bring the cost per robot down to $50,000 to $100,000 by deployment. .
“If we can hit that $50,000 price point, we’ll be able to sell a lot of robots,” he said, noting that the robot’s battery can be charged while running 24 hours a day. “The robot will be paid for within a year.”
In pharmaceutical research, generative AI can reduce costs without reducing human effort.
“Reducing headcount does not mean we will save money on our business,” said Alex Zaboronkov, chairman, executive officer and CEO of Insilico Medicine, which has offices in Hong Kong. “The biggest cost savings come from fewer failed experiments.” , New York and other parts of the world.
He noted that big drug companies typically have to spend thousands of dollars to replicate molecules for tests, and end up running thousands of such tests per program. He claimed that with the help of AI, Insilico only needs to synthesize about 70 molecules per program.
The company published a paper in Nature in March, AI-generated medicine.
