AlphaBot 2 wants to beat humans at their own game. When the robot is asked if it wants to play dice, it can interpret the question and jump into action – pressing the button on an automatic dice roller, which spins a die. It can even react to its opponent’s score with a thumbs up if they win.
The humanoid, created by AI² Robotics, based in Shenzhen, China, displayed its skills at the recent Beyond Expo in the Chinese special administrative region of Macao, where it played the game with attendees of the tech conference, including CNN journalists.
The robot’s ability to understand instructions was made possible by embodied artificial intelligence (AI) – the integration of AI systems into physical entities – allowing it to interact with and learn from the world around it.
“In the last era of robots, people needed to program them to tell them what to do,” Yandong Guo, CEO of AI² Robotics, told CNN correspondent Kristie Lu Stout on the sidelines of the conference. “Now you just tell them what to do, and the robot can understand the environment.”
Guo adds that it took the robot just minutes to learn to play. “We just show the robot what to do, maybe five to 10 samples, and the robot can learn.”
While AI chatbots like ChatGPT have become familiar, many experts say that embodied AI is the next big thing in the field.
Companies across the world are developing humanoid robots with AI, including Tesla and California-based Figure AI, whose investors include major tech companies like Microsoft and Nvidia.
In China, embodied AI is receiving serious national support, including funding, innovation centers and even a robot school. Shenzhen alone is home to more than 200 companies focusing on the tech, according to local media.
Officials see the technology as a potential driver of economic growth, and in recent years homegrown robots have gained attention for skills ranging from delivering roundhouse kicks to running a half-marathon (though not very quickly).
Robotic butlers
Today, robots are already being used around the globe in industrial settings, like car manufacturing plants. Many robots are programmed to complete routine tasks, but things are shifting towards the use of embodied AI, says Harry Yang, an assistant professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “As tasks become more complex, you need robots to see and understand and act based on different situations,” he says.
AlphaBot 2 – which comes equipped with AI² Robotics’ self-developed embodied AI model – already has customers across industrial services, biotechnology, and public services, the company says.
At a factory operated by carmaker Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co. it loads and unloads materials, tows carts, and attaches labels to windshields.
But Guo hopes that one day, it can step out of the factory and into the home.
Today, most robots lack the technological prowess to be helpful in a household. Hong Kong-listed UBTech Robotics plans to unveil a $20,000 home companion robot this year, according to Bloomberg, but the company said the technology was years away from being able to help with household chores and to look after humans.
That’s because it’s difficult to get enough training data to simulate the varying home environments people live in, experts say. But Morgan Stanley estimates that 80 million humanoids will be used in homes by 2050, as technology advances.
Guo is already envisioning how his robots might be able to help consumers. “If you want to drink some tea,” he says, “the robot can know where to fetch the teabag can know where to get hot water, and how to pour the hot water into the cup and make tea for you.”
That’s not all. “After we eat, I hope our robot can clean up all the dishes for us. We love to cook, but we don’t like to clean things up.”
‘A robot for every family’
The reality Guo imagines is still a way off. Prices will need to come down. AI² declined to share a price for its humanoids, saying its robots are tailored to customer requirements, so there’s no fixed price. Humanoids produced by some other companies in China cost just shy of $15,000 and within five years, the price of an AI² humanoid could drop to the range of an entry-level car affordable to a middle-class family, says a spokesperson.
“The challenge here is that it’s very expensive to make one,” says Yang. “Maybe you’d rather hire someone (to work in your home), it’s cheaper and easier.”
Safety is another major concern; a robot tipping over onto a human could cause injury. Experts have also raised concerns about the privacy risks of a home robot collecting people’s data through cameras and microphones.
Guo says that Chinese consumers have some anxiety about putting humanoid robots to use, and the company takes safety and privacy into consideration when it develops its products, but he adds: “You would be surprised to see there are so many customers in China willing to get robots.”
Yang says that it will likely be about five to 10 years before humanoid robots can be truly useful in the home.
AI² Robotics says in the third quarter of 2025 its robots will be launched at airports in major Chinese cities for tasks like organizing luggage carts for passengers. In three to five years, they might be ready for senior facilities, he says.
The robots will be learning along the way. “We need to get a lot of data for the robot to learn, to have this kind of common sense,” he says.
That could help the company get closer to its goal. “Our dream is to get one robot for every family,” he says.
From CNN
