What can humanoid robots do? That’s the question Chinese manufacturers were trying to answer at this year’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), the country’s biggest annual AI event, held in Shanghai last weekend. Local stars from AgiBot to Unitree Robotics showed off their machines dancing, serving popcorn and kickboxing. Amid all the action, Tesla’s Optimus, one of several foreign products on display, stood motionless behind a glass enclosure. Despite the dazzling display, skeptics still question the necessity of humanoids. After all, why insist on building robots in human forms when simpler and cheaper products, like robot hands and robot vacuums, already do a good job solving real-world problems? Li Tong, founder and CEO of Shanghai-based Keenon Robotics, acknowledged that truly versatile humanoids remained a distant goal. “The deployment of humanoid robots will evolve gradually, from single tasks to multiple tasks, from limited versatility to broader capabilities,” he said in an interview with the Post. One factor driving the optimism around humanoids is advancing AI technology, which has given hope that robots could become more useful once they have a smarter brain. https://www.scmp.com/tech.. #🇨🇳 ChinA.I. 🤖🧠🦾🤖 #Robotics Revolution 🦾🤖🦿