China Sends Robots Into the World to Learn How to Be Human - Insurance Journal

American firms have deployed some humanoids to factories,with Tesla Inc. sending some of its Optimus models to its own manufacturing facilities. Startups including Figure AI, Apptronik Inc. and Agility Robotics Inc. have all sent small numbers of their machines to industrial partners. Still, that pales in comparison to the efforts by Chinese firms like Shanghai-based Agibot, which is rapidly scaling up factory deployment by the thousands.

In May, Sunnyvale, California-based Figure AI celebrated a milestone after it released a 50-hour livestream during which its humanoid robots sorted packages at its logistics hub with no mistakes. The robots processed nearly 60,000 packages on a moving belt at about the same speed as a human, Chief Executive Officer Brett Adcock told Bloomberg News. China is deploying more humanoids than ever before, sending thousands to logistics hubs, battery factories and other industrial locations at a faster pace than the US. Buoyed by support from the government and a flood of investment, startups are getting their most advanced machines out into the world in a bid to gather torrents of data that can fuel the development of smarter, more humanlike machines.

President Xi Jinping is looking to the robotics industry for help beating the US in a global technology race. China’s manufacturing prowess and robust supply chain management position it well to reap the benefits of humanoids before its geopolitical rival. Xi is due to address the country’s flagship AI conference this week for the first time, where the latest humanoids will be on display. After Unitree Robotics turned heads with the popular kung fu moves of its G1 model, China’s humanoid industry is now undergoing a seismic shift from body to mind. Investors are pouring cash into firms developing AI for robots, known as embodied intelligence, and the biggest names in Chinese tech, from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Xiaomi Corp., are joining the fray with their own models.