The government report proposes to seize the opportunities of artificial intelligence and development, and humanoid robots

This year's government work report proposes that China will vigorously promote the construction of a modern industrial system, accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, deepen the research and development of big data, artificial intelligence and other applications, carry out the "Artificial Intelligence+" action, and create a digital industry cluster with international competitiveness. Among them, humanoid robots, as a pioneer of future industries, have shown great potential and attractiveness, becoming a new highland of technological competition and a new engine for economic development.

A reporter from China Business News learned that since 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and local governments in many regions have successively issued relevant support policies in China. Overseas, humanoid robots are also a favored field for many investment institutions. For example, Figure AI, a start-up company that has only been established for 4 years, recently completed its Series B financing, raising $675 million. This round of financing has received support from heavyweight investors such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. With this round of funding injection, the valuation of Figure AI has soared to $2.6 billion, becoming a unicorn enterprise in the robotics industry.

Humanoid robots are expected to become the next disruptive technological product after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles. During this year's National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, several NPC deputies and CPPCC members submitted proposals and proposals on issues such as technological innovation, ecological construction, and commercialization of humanoid robots.

We will welcome the first year of mass production

With the continuous development of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the intelligence level of humanoid robots will continue to improve, and their application scenarios will become more diverse. In the future, humanoid robots are expected to play a greater role in education, home care, rescue and other fields, bringing more convenience to human life.

Recently, Haitong Securities released a research report stating that with the support of AI big models, domestic and foreign companies have continuously refreshed their research and development progress on humanoid robots. Against the backdrop of industrial capital rushing to layout and continuous iteration and upgrading of generative AI big model technology, coupled with policy dividends, 2024 is expected to become the first year of mass production of humanoid robots. With the acceleration of the industrialization of humanoid robots, the humanoid robot industry chain is expected to take shape.

Previously, a research report by CITIC Securities also pointed out that it is expected that humanoid robots will become a competition worth trillions of yuan. Humanoid robots are one of the most promising landing directions for AI. In the future, they can not only liberate humans from low-end and high-risk industries, improve human productivity and work efficiency, but also have broad application scenarios in industry, commerce, home, outer space exploration and other fields. It is expected that after the iteration and maturity of the humanoid robot industry, the corresponding annual market size will be several trillion yuan.

However, with the development and maturity of artificial intelligence related technologies and the continuous improvement of the intelligence level of humanoid robots, the application scenarios will continue to expand, and the overall market size will show exponential growth. But currently, humanoid robots have extremely high hardware requirements, high manufacturing costs, and complex manufacturing processes. The entire industry is in the early stages of research and development, and some brands of humanoid robots have almost no commercial applications except for appearing at major speeches and conference venues.

Xu Lijin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman and General Manager of Wuhu Robot Industry Development Group Co., Ltd., stated that developed countries led by the United States have been conducting research on humanoid robots for over 50 years. Due to the late start of humanoid robot research in China, in terms of scene innovation and application promotion, the industry still has common key technologies to be improved, high product costs limit commercial application and promotion, and the lack of commercial landing scenes hinders the industrialization process.

Wu Gaobin, Executive Chairman of the China Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood's Digital Chain Reform Working Committee, believes that there are currently no commercially successful humanoid robots on the market, and there may be multiple reasons for this. Firstly, the technological threshold for humanoid robots is relatively high, requiring overcoming many technical challenges in areas such as human body structure, perception, and control. Secondly, the demand for robots in the current market is not high, but the market competition is relatively fierce. Finally, ethical and moral issues need to be considered in the commercialization process of humanoid robots, which are also crucial for the development of the robotics industry.

However, in the view of Wang Yingbo, a digital economist at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, technological progress is exponential, and the initial 10% may take 90% of the time. At the same time, the core of humanoid robots still relies on the development of general artificial intelligence. At present, general artificial intelligence is still in its early stages, and technological maturity still needs time. Although the success of ChatGPT has greatly accelerated the development of general artificial intelligence, it is still only the first step in a long journey. However, the overall progress speed will continue to accelerate, and the popularity of humanoid robots will also change with the progress of general artificial intelligence.

Multiple measures in parallel

The popularity of humanoid robots continues to rise, and it is considered to be another disruptive product after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles, which will drive the vast blue ocean market. However, at the same time, as a new milestone in the forefront of technology, the successful commercialization of humanoid robots depends on various factors such as technological progress, market demand, and policy support. If humanoid robots can continuously improve and optimize, while receiving support and promotion from the market and policies, their development prospects will be very broad.

To this end, Xu Lijin suggested during this year's National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that based on the existing industrial foundation, accelerate the integration of the "supply side" advantageous resources of the humanoid robot industry chain, and strengthen collaborative supply capabilities; Various regions provide unified humanoid robot computing power centers through allocation or government investment, and build super powerful humanoid robot "intelligent brains"; Based on the existing robot industry chain, build and improve the supply capacity of the humanoid robot industry chain, and reduce the overall cost of humanoid robots through large-scale production.

Sun Zhiqiang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman and President of Ruisong Technology, also put forward suggestions on the ecological construction of the robotics industry. Sun Zhiqiang stated that China's robotics industry is developing rapidly and is the world's largest consumer and producer of robots. Its role and significance in the global robotics industry are becoming increasingly important. He suggested that the "China Robot Association" should be established as soon as possible, and a collaborative innovation mechanism of "government, industry, academia, research, and funding" should be created to create an innovative ecosystem for the robot industry that covers the interaction and integration of technology, talent, platforms, finance, policies, and international cooperation. This will create an innovative cultural atmosphere, break down the boundaries of units, organizations, regions, and industries, give full play to the role of collaborative innovation, form a high-level and distinctive communication and cooperation platform, and build new advantages for China's robot industry.

In addition to the construction of industrial ecology, humanoid robots, as an industry with disruptive and cutting-edge technologies, still need policy support.

To promote the rapid development of China's robotics industry, the government has formulated a series of top-level policies, including the "14th Five Year Plan" for the development of the robotics industry, the "Robot+" application action implementation plan, the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Emergency Robots," and the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting Innovative Development of Future Industries. These policies aim to cultivate the robotics industry into a strategic emerging and future industry. At the same time, the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Special Project for Industrial Infrastructure Reconstruction and High Quality Development of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have also provided tremendous support for accelerating the research and development of cutting-edge and core key technologies in the domestic robot industry, the localization and replacement of core components, the improvement of overall application performance, and the demonstration and application of typical industries. The implementation of these policies and measures will effectively promote the rapid development of China's robotics industry and inject new impetus into the country's economic and social development.

Sun Zhiqiang stated that we need to fully leverage China's institutional and market advantages, tilt more policies and funds, gather domestic and foreign innovation resources, promote the use of enterprises as carriers and associations as links, widely unite scientific researchers, universities, and research institutes, and comprehensively enhance China's international discourse power in robot technology standards, testing and certification through talent cultivation, achievement expansion, and international cooperation.

Xu Lijin also suggested strengthening policy guidance, building an innovative ecosystem for the application of humanoid robots in scenarios, supporting humanoid robot enterprises to establish cooperation with application parties for innovative achievements in the preliminary stage, and conducting first trials and uses; Support relevant research and development institutions and enterprises to open up the application function interfaces of humanoid robot products, expand the scope of downstream application scenarios, build an application ecosystem aggregation platform, encourage the application of humanoid robot scenario innovation competitions, etc., to support the exploration and experimentation of humanoid robot application scenarios in the embryonic stage, accelerate the popularization of humanoid robots, and form economies of scale as soon as possible.