Embodied intelligence has taken center stage at Shanghai's World AI Conference (WAIC) 2024, indicating up-and-coming prospects of a more convenient lifestyle for humanity.
Tesla's latest humanoid robot Optimus Gen2 wowed visitors with its astonishing performances, with its walking speed increased by 30 percent, and 10 fingers able to sense the weight and texture of different objects.
Next year, some 1,000 Optimus robots will help human complete production tasks in the Tesla factory, and its CEO Elon Musk has made a bold prediction that the number of humanoid robots will surpass human workforce one day, potentially reaching 10 to 20 billion.
Another mind-blowing robot by ULS Robotics is a combination of humanoid and exoskeleton, a wearable companion.
"It's able to first help people work together, and then it can work autonomously with the help of AI. This is a human-machine collaborative system in the era of embodied intelligence," said Xu Zhenhua, founder of ULS Robotics.
Xu says this robot can carry 40 kilograms and could replace humans working in harsh environments.
Unmanned products have also been used in current industrial sites, such as mining and road construction. XCMG Research Institute brought their driverless excavator to the WAIC this year.
"These products all have intelligent perception, autonomous decision-making, and other unmanned technologies. The vehicle is equipped with intelligent perception sensors, such as a laser radar and a millimeter wave, and the equipment can intelligently perceive the working environment and tasks," said Hu Di, control engineer of XCMG Research Institute.
Brain-computer interface (BCI) hats are also a spotlight at the event, with some featuring medical purposes to detect diseases.
"It can capture data from our brain, like non-invasively get the data. And then we can use the data to analyze different disease, such as depression, anxiety, or like strokes, some others like cancer, or different [neurological] disease," said Neo Ni, CEO and founder of OYMotion, a company dedicated for BCI products.
Industry insiders believe embodied intelligence will create entirely new ways of life. In the future, robots will not only understand the physical world, but also operate within it flexibly and collaborate with human seamlessly.
Embodied intelligence takes center stage at Shanghai's World AI Conference
The momentum of improvement in China-Japan relations has not come easily, and it is particularly important to maintain the political foundation of relations between the two countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Tokyo on Saturday.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Tokyo.
As close neighbors, relationship between China and Japan holds significance that goes beyond bilateral scope, Wang noted, saying the two sides should face up to history and look to the future, maintain the right direction of bilateral relations, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, promote steady and long-term bilateral relations, and contribute to peace and prosperity of the two countries and Asia.
Wang stressed that correctly understanding and treating history is an important prerequisite for Japan's post-war return to the international community, political foundation for Japan to develop relations with its neighboring countries, and an important criterion for testing whether Japan can abide by its commitment to peaceful development.
Four political documents between China and Japan have made clear provisions on history and the Taiwan question, which must be strictly implemented, Wang said.
For his part, Iwaya said Japan has long followed the path of peaceful development and attaches great importance to abiding by the four political documents between Japan and China, adding Japan's position on the Taiwan question, based on the Japan-China joint communique in 1972, remains unchanged.
In November last year, leaders of the two countries reached an important consensus on comprehensively advancing the strategic relationship of mutual benefit between Japan and China and building constructive and stable bilateral ties, Iwaya said.
Based on the consensus, the two sides have made efforts to promote the improvement of bilateral relations, he added.
Seeing huge potential for bilateral cooperation, Iwaya said Japan is determined and willing to strengthen dialogue and communication with the Chinese side and further push for more results in cooperation in various fields and bring more benefits to the two peoples.
As the international situation is changing rapidly, Japan and China, as responsible countries, should work together to play a positive role in safeguarding regional peace and stability, Iwaya added.
Maintaining political foundation of China-Japan relations particularly important: Wang Yi
