Han media: [Understanding China] What kind of environment is needed to develop humanoid robots?

"Although South Korea has taken a step back in the field of generative artificial intelligence (AI), it still has an advantage in the 'physical' aspect," this is the general view of South Korean AI experts. They believe that South Korea should let AI technology bear fruit based on its strong manufacturing industry. Considering this, the reporter visited the physical AI company "Zhi Ping Fang Technology" located in Beijing.

The company that the reporter visited does not seem to be "neat" from an environmental perspective. Robots are scattered throughout the office, and one exhausted employee is sleeping on the desk. However, this company is one of the well-known start-ups in the Chinese AI industry, and was once rated as one of the "Eight Great Kings" among the top 8 AI companies in Shenzhen.

The company's main product is the "AlphaBot" (Aibao) series, which is a humanoid robot capable of recognizing spatial information through vision and language and performing full-range movement. According to the introduction, this robot has already been deployed in manufacturing factories in the automotive and semiconductor industries. Its core competitiveness comes from the company's independently developed robot brain "AlphaBrain".

Zhi Ping Fang has two headquarters in Beijing and Shenzhen. The Beijing headquarters is the base where CEO Guo Yandong realizes his "talent ambition." He focuses on talent recruitment using initial investment funds including the Tsinghua University Venture Capital Fund. He not only recruited overseas experts from Microsoft but also gathered senior talents from Tsinghua University and Peking University. In January, the company also established the "Physical AI Research Center" together with Peking University. Currently, postgraduate students from Peking University and company employees are working together in the same office for joint research and development.

Shenzhen, on the other hand, is the front line base for enhancing application capabilities. Zhi Ping Fang is strengthening cooperation with local enterprises in Shenzhen to develop robots that can be directly deployed on site. The Shenzhen municipal government has also given strong support by opening up more than 100 public project data to provide the optimal environment for AI enterprises.

So, can the company succeed? From early market reactions, the outlook is optimistic. Zhi Ping Fang has signed cooperation agreements with multiple companies in the fields of automobiles, semiconductors, and airports, and has trained and deployed robots. This year, the company raised several hundred million yuan through two rounds of financing. These funds are being used to attract talent, upgrade technology, and develop new products, forming a virtuous cycle.

Of course, everything is not perfect yet. The movement speed of AlphaBot still has a lot of room for improvement, and there are certain limitations in its moving radius. But there is no doubt that it is becoming increasingly intelligent. This is due to China's AI ecosystem - a comprehensive coordination of talent, technology, capital, market, and government support. AlphaBot is growing vigorously within this ecological system. If South Korea wants to develop physical AI, the conditions for its success will be similar.

Source: JoongAng Daily

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1838262821525516/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author.