“I’M thirsty,” a visitor told a towering humanoid robot standing 1.7 metres tall and weighing 65 kilogrammes at the 7th World Voice Expo in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province.
Without hesitation, the black humanoid robot identified the bottle of coffee among the two other objects on the desk and handed it to the visitor.
“Powered by the large language model, our second-generation humanoid robot is smarter and can perform more delicate tasks such as pouring coffee,” said Ji Chao, chief robotics scientist of artificial intelligence (AI) company iFLYTEK.
iFLYTEK’s superbrain robotic platform has empowered 450 robotics enterprises and 15,000 developers across the country by opening up the company’s large language model, according to Ji.
The 7th World Voice Expo, held over four days, showcases over 200 AI innovations, including humanoid robots and advanced human-machine interaction systems.
Notably, the Hangzhou-based startup Unitree presented its Unitree H1 humanoid robot, capable of moving at 3.3 metres per second, reflecting the growing market for humanoid robotics with over 100 units sold at $90,000 each.
China’s government has initiated an AI Plus strategy to enhance the digital economy and modernize manufacturing.
The expo introduced an automatic voice-interaction testing system for new energy vehicles (NEVs), enabling real-time interaction tracking and significantly reducing testing times from weeks to just a few days.
Industry leaders, including Chery’s chairman, emphasized AI’s transformative impact on the automobile sector, with innovations like intelligent cockpits and multilingual vehicles.
Daily necessities are increasingly integrated with AI, exemplified by MiMouse’s smart mouse and new keyboard that utilize large language models for tasks like article generation and translation. — Xinhua
