China’s humanoid robots aren’t smart enough to take your job — yet

UBTech won an $18 million tender from the Guangxi regional government in October to supply a training center in Liuzhou with humanoid robots, where trainers using headsets and handheld controllers guide the robots through tasks like sorting crates and packaging noodles. The facility aims to produce training data for embodied AI, but the robots remain slow and awkward, with novice trainers achieving one usable movement in 300 attempts and experienced trainers one in 50.

LIUZHOU/BEIJING – Inside a training center in southern China, more than 100 humanoid robots stand in neat rows. A dozen human trainers wearing headsets guide some of them through simple tasks — sorting crates, packaging noodles, making coffee. The humanoids are slow and awkward. A novice trainer might get them to produce one usable movement in 300 attempts; an experienced trainer, one in 50. Robot maker UBTech won an $18 million tender from the Guangxi regional government last October to supply the training facility with humanoids and related hardware. The mission: to produce training data for so-called embodied AI — robots able to perceive, decide and act in the physical world. The trainers use headsets to see from the robots’ perspective and handheld controllers fitted with sensors to translate their own movements into the robots’ actions.