It's started: Robot Uprising Begins as China Turns to Machines to Fill in Gaps in the Workforce

[خره مينه لګته وي]

Chief scientist of Hanson Robotics, Ben Goertzel (R), interacts with "Sophia the Robot" (L) during a discussion about the future of humanity in a demonstration of artificial intelligence (AI) by Hanson Robotics. PHOTO: AFP


HONG KONG,: It was a spooky sight: two lifelike disembodied robot torsos discussing the pros and cons of humans in front of a nervously tittering audience in Hong Kong Wednesday.

Artificial intelligence is the dominant theme at this year’s sprawling RISE tech conference at the city’s harbourfront convention centre, but the live robot exchange took the AI debate to another level.

Handsome male humanoid Han, dressed in a pinstripe suit jacket, and his elegant sister Sophia, modelled on Audrey Hepburn, chatted onstage about life in the universe and everything, from their love of science fiction to their bewilderment at “silly” reality shows.

“Han the Robot” waits on stage before a discussion about the future of humanity in a demonstration of artificial intelligence (AI) by Hanson Robotics. PHOTO: AFP

While chief scientist Ben Goertzel of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, which invented the machines, sang their praises, the robots seemed more sceptical of their human peers.

When Goertzel asked the duo whether robots could really be moral and ethical, Han countered: “Humans are not necessarily the most ethical creatures”.

The robot later pointed out: “In 10 or 20 years, robots will be able to do every human job.”

Tech giants race for edge in artificial intelligence

A gentler Sophia conceded that humans do have “some ability to reflect and self-modify”.

She insisted her aim was to work together with people, before Han “joked” he thought the robots’ goal was to take over the world.

The machines had been programmed to banter and learn from each other, and had been trained to act like humans from movies and YouTube, said Goertzel.

Chief scientist of Hanson Robotics, Ben Goertzel (L), interacts with “Han the Robot” (R) during a discussion about the future of humanity in a demonstration of artificial intelligence (AI) by Hanson Robotics. PHOTO: AFP

Their malleable skin is controlled by dozens of motors, while computers in their torsos help with vision and movement. They can also connect to wifi to use cloud computing, where they will eventually share a vast amount of knowledge, Goertzel said.

Robots could be “as smart as people” in as little as three years, he predicted.

According to robot mastermind David Hanson, CEO and founder of Hanson Robotics, the machines’ onstage repartee was only part scripted and is just a taste of things to come.

The next revolution: artificial intelligence

He said he wanted them to “emotionally engage” with people — Sophia has already graced the cover of fashion magazines, sung at pop concerts and appeared on television talk shows.

“This is a kind of character animation that can come to life in our world,” Hanson told AFP.

David Hanson (C), chief executive officer (CEO) of Hanson Robotics, reacts to “Han the Robot” (R) and “Sophia the Robot” (L) after a discussion about the future of humanity in a demonstration of artificial intelligence (AI) by Hanson Robotics. PHOTO: AFP

Robots would be able to work with humans in factories, customer service and medicine but would also become our friends, said Hanson, who did not rule out eventual robot-human romantic relationships.

“As the AI matches and exceeds human levels of intelligence we hope they’ll help us solve the world’s great problems,” he added.

However, Hanson acknowledged there were fears over what the future could hold.

“There’s reasonable speculation that if we don’t build machines that really care, they’ll have motives of their own,” he said, adding that it was important to openly discuss how to develop AI that is “inherently safe and good and caring”.


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[Cyberian]

Where's the video?

 

[JSCh]

China Focus: The world's factory replaces men with machines
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-02 16:38:42|Editor: An



GUANGZHOU, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Unlike college graduates who swarm into office buildings as white collar workers, Yang Jitian is a blue collar worker in Dongguan, southern China's Guangdong Province.

After graduating in July, he was trained as an electrical machine operator at a numerical control production line at a mold manufacturing company called Ensheng.

"University graduates were rare at assembly lines of plants in the past, but the situation is changing. Most of our classmates have now become blue collar," Yang says.

MACHINE FOR MAN

Known as the world's factory, Dongguan is a leading production base for garments and gadgets. One-fifth of the world's smartphones are produced there, so are one-tenth of the world's shoes.

Since China's opening and reform in the late 1970s, the city has attracted China's abundant low-end labor force to work on factory assembly lines.

However, the economic slowdown and growing labor costs have forced the city to seek transformation by introducing robots and machine operators.

Yang works in a workshop twice the size of a basketball court, at a constant temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.

The machines they operate are worth more than 1.5 million yuan (223,000 U.S. dollars) on average. Without dust and noise, all Yang needs to do is to type complicated codes correctly and monitor the running status of the machine.

This year, Ensheng company recruited seven college graduates from an international cooperation class at Dongguan Technician College, including Yang.

General manager Wu Bin says the limited competence of farmer-turned workers has greatly affected the company's development in fine manufacturing and processing.

"A worker broke a cutting head worth 400,000 yuan on the first day he joined the company," Wu says, adding that he plans to recruit more college graduates next year.

Figures show the minimum wage jumped from 690 yuan in 2006 to 1,510 yuan in 2015, with labor cost doubled or even tripled in some companies.

In September 2014, pressured by a persistent labor crunch and surging wage bills, Dongguan started its push towards automation, providing subsidies for manufacturing "machine for man" programs.

By January, nearly 2,700 projects under the program had received government funding support, introducing 76,000 machines. The machines have increased productivity 2.5-fold, freeing 200,000 line workers.

COLLEGE SUPPORT

In college, Yang learned skills ranging from making standardized records to machine operations.

"It seems a nice way out, to be a trained blue collar worker, since the manufacturing industry in Dongguan is in transition," he says.

To attract university students who prefer better office jobs, the Chinese government has offered subsidies for student tuition and funds for vocational colleges.

By 2016, the number of vocational colleges, which are aimed at educating high-end technical personnel, reached nearly 1,400, accounting for 52.3 percent of China's universities.

Si Qi, director at the human resources bureau of Dongguan, says graduates from the China-German class in Dongguan Technician College mostly stay in Dongguan, with an average monthly wage over 6,000 yuan.

The headmaster of Dongguan Technician College, Liu Haiguang says the college is trying to train all-round skilled technicians for the high-end manufacturing industry.

"With machines, technical talent will compose of new types of workshop, which will help with upgrade 'made-in-China'," he says.

 

[cirr]

Chinese university starts training robot engineers

2017-08-06 13:11

People's Daily Online Editor: Li Yahui

Undergraduates at Wuhan Business University can now major in robots. Eighty students will be enrolled in the upcoming fall semester and will become the first batch of robot engineers with a bachelor's degree four years later, Changjiang Daily reported on Aug. 3.

Ten industrial robots displayed at the school's robot training base will serve as teaching equipment for the robot majors, said Ren Yansheng, director of the Office of Robot Teaching and Research.

The objective is not to teach students how to develop, research, or assemble robots, but to produce engineers who are skilled at robotic application and capable of solving concrete problems, said teacher Han Chang.

According to the education plan, these 80 students will start with liberal education and internships in manufacturing in the first academic year. Later on, they will have access to specialized courses and internships in training bases. After graduation, they will be equipped to work for robot system integrators or intelligent manufacturing enterprises.

The graduates with help relieve the current shortage for such talent.

http://www.ecns.cn/2017/08-06/268250.shtml

 

[AndrewJin]

Chinese university starts training robot engineers

2017-08-06 13:11

People's Daily Online Editor: Li Yahui

Undergraduates at Wuhan Business University can now major in robots. Eighty students will be enrolled in the upcoming fall semester and will become the first batch of robot engineers with a bachelor's degree four years later, Changjiang Daily reported on Aug. 3.

Ten industrial robots displayed at the school's robot training base will serve as teaching equipment for the robot majors, said Ren Yansheng, director of the Office of Robot Teaching and Research.

The objective is not to teach students how to develop, research, or assemble robots, but to produce engineers who are skilled at robotic application and capable of solving concrete problems, said teacher Han Chang.

According to the education plan, these 80 students will start with liberal education and internships in manufacturing in the first academic year. Later on, they will have access to specialized courses and internships in training bases. After graduation, they will be equipped to work for robot system integrators or intelligent manufacturing enterprises.

The graduates with help relieve the current shortage for such talent.

http://www.ecns.cn/2017/08-06/268250.shtml

Not just in university, many primary and middle schools now teach students how to survive in the automation era.

 

[cirr]

China seeks to upgrade manufacturing by becoming automation leader

2017-08-08 09:37

Global Times Editor: Li Yan

China's manufacturing industry revolution is in full swing as more and more factories introduce robots to take the place of human workers.

"Industrial robots will witness a 'golden period of development' in the next 20 to 30 years in China with the transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing," Luo Jun, CEO of the International Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Industry Alliance, an industry thinktank, told the Global Times.

Meanwhile, service robots that can be used as domestic helpers and in hospitals, hotels and nursing homes are becoming increasingly known to the public.

Government initiatives to improve the quality of China's industries, such as "China Manufacturing 2025," have sought to support the country's robot industry.

China, which still relies on imports to meet its demand for robots, lags behind the West in robotic R&D and observers have pointed out that bridging this gap is key to the country becoming a world-leader in the sector.

Unmanned factories

In a workshop in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province, 150 robots do everything on the assembly line from processing raw materials to assembling finished products. Their owner, Vision Tool, specializes in designing and building the stamping implements used by automobile companies, including Volvo, Ford and Tesla, the news site thepaper.cn reported.

Vision Tool is the latest epitome of Dongguan's automated manufacturing. The first unmanned factory in Dongguan actually appeared two years ago. The Everwin Precision Technology Co introduced 60 pairs of mechanical arms to work 24 hours a day on 10 assembly lines, replacing 650 workers. The factory plans to eventually introduce 1,000 such machines and cut 80 percent of its workforce, the Xinhua News Agency reported in July 2015.

Manufacturers' demand for robots has led to the factories that produce these products also having to work around the clock.

China has more than 40 robotics industrial parks and 800 robot-manufacturing companies as of March. But most domestically-made robots are medium to low-end products, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the media in March.

Sun Ying, deputy president of the Zhejiang Robot Association and head of a robotics firm in Hangzhou, told the Global Times that her company's sales revenue reached 200 million yuan ($29 million) last year, up from just 600,000 yuan in 2012 when the company was established.

Sun's company mainly provides industrial robots for the detection of flaws and measurements to the logistics, automobile and optical communication sectors.

"Most of our robots were sold to factories in southern China in the past, but starting this year, our market has expanded to European countries including Russia, the Czech Republic and Finland following China's Belt and Road initiative," Sun said.

Meanwhile, the company is also eyeing the service robot industry, establishing a new branch last year to develop medical robots for nursing homes, according to Sun.

The National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, a national advisory organ, said it predicts that more than 150,000 industrial robots will be sold in China by 2020, with more than 800,000 in service by then. The committee added that the sector will be worth tens of billions of yuan and will be globally competitive, thepaper.cn reported.

Catch up

As China is a manufacturing power that has long been focused on labor-intensive industries, the transformation of its manufacturing needs robots to improve its automation level, Luo said.

But China has struggled to keep pace with Western countries in developing and researching robots, and the techniques behind core components of industrial robots, such as electrical machinery and controllers, are monopolized by Japan and Germany, according to Luo.

"Even in the domestic industrial robot market, Chinese robot companies only account for 20 percent, and the rest is occupied by foreign or joint venture companies," Luo said.

Meanwhile Sun said that the low standardization of Chinese factories results in a prolonged research period for Chinese robot companies and a waste of their manpower, as assembly lines vary a lot between different factories in the same industry.

To encourage Chinese scientists to develop robotic technology, China has allocated 600 million yuan for 42 robotics programs this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in August.

Luo suggested the government step up efforts to develop next generation robots which use artificial intelligence, in order to narrow the gap with Western developed countries.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/08-08/268463.shtml

 

[ChineseToTheBone]

There is an upcoming collaboration animated series funded by DJI about their annual RoboMaster competition. This show will begin airing in both China and Japan by October 13th.

 

[Beast]

China shall sponsor transformer movie and make one of their DJI Mavic as one of the autobots.

Mavic turning into a robot will be cool

 

[onebyone]

Robot introduced to hospital to autofill prescriptions in E. #China

An intelligent robotic machine was put into use to fill prescriptions in a children’s hospital in Nanjing, capital city of eastern #China’s #Jiangsu province. The machine is able to locate and grab drugs of up to six prescriptions accurately at a time, which has significantly reduced waiting time for patients.

 

[onebyone]

ee how Chinese #dumplings are produced in an unmanned factory in N. China

An unmanned factory is seen in Qinhuangdao, north #China's #Hebei province. The highlight of this factory is that all products, from dough kneading to packaging, are done by machines automatically.

 

[8888888888888]

So the robot factories are coming .

 

[Jlaw]

Good
Idea. Save time

 

[onebyone]

1,069 dancing robots break Guinness World Record in south China

A cluster of 1,069 robots set a new Guinness World Record for the most humanoid machines dancing simultaneously.The synchronised machines pulled off the jaw dropping performance in south China's Guangzhou, breaking the previous held record of 1,007 bopping bots. The dynamic show was created by Chinese company, WL Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd, which programmed the robots, called ‘Dobi’, through one group control system.

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[AndrewJin]

Cool

 

[onebyone]

As reported by Nikkei's Asian Review, about 90 percent of the personal robots on display at the IFA consumer electronics trade show, which just wrapped up in Berlin, were developed and manufactured by Chinese companies. That's especially surprising considering Japan, which has an aging population, has been pursuing personal robotics especially vigorously.

http://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/art...minate-robotics-markets-sooner-than-expected/
There are big signs that's changing rapidly. According to a report from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China will triple its sales of robots by 2018. By 2019, the IFR predicts that more than 1.4 million new industrial robots will be installed in factories around the world, and China will account for 40 percent of global robotics sales.

The trend makes sense. Labor costs are rising, threatening the manufacturing base and infrastructure that turned China into an economic powerhouse. IDC predicts that China will spend $59.4 billion on robotics and related services by 2020.