Chinese robotics company Unitree’s CEO Wang Xingxing has predicted that humanoid robots may still be years away from reaching their own “ChatGPT moment.” The chief executive of the world’s largest seller and manufacturer of humanoid robots has made this forecast despite growing interest in the technology. Speaking at the World Robot Conference in Beijing this week, 36-year-old Xingxing said the breakthrough could take “2 to 3 years at the fastest, and 5 or even 10 years at the slowest,” according to a translation of his speech previously reported by CNBC.Wang said robots would reach that point only when they can be placed in an unfamiliar environment or a home and complete about 80% of tasks using voice commands or text alone. His comments suggest that robots still cannot easily adapt to new situations and tasks, a limitation he said is holding back the robotics industry.
Unitree CEO says robots still need years to reach ChatGPT moment
Wang’s latest estimate is more cautious than his comments at the same conference last year, when he said the breakthrough moment for robotics would arrive within five years at the latest. His remarks also came shortly after Unitree’s stock surged 460% when the company debuted on Shanghai’s STAR Market.Founded by Wang about a decade ago, Unitree became more widely known last year after a video showed its humanoid robots performing a coordinated dance with humans during China’s Spring Festival Gala broadcast on state television.Less than a month later, Wang was among a small group of executives seated in the front row alongside BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei at a private enterprise symposium hosted by China’s president Xi Jinping in Beijing.“Artificial-intelligence-driven robots are evolving at an incredibly fast pace, surpassing my expectations. Every day brings new surprises,” Wang told China state TV following the meeting, the South China Morning Post reported.Unitree returned to the Spring Festival Gala this year, with its robots performing more advanced movements including backflips and jumps over platforms.
Humanoid robots still need retraining for new tasks
Wang said Unitree’s robots remain less efficient than human workers and need retraining for each new task. Their difficulty in adapting to unfamiliar situations remains one of the main challenges for the wider robotics industry, he said.Unitree is working on a self-evolving development loop in which its AI tests a robot’s “control code” and continuously scores the results with human help. The system is intended to improve the precision of the robots’ movements, which Wang said can still go wrong in “the last few centimetres or millimetres.”
