“We are marching towards a ChatGPT moment”: Unitree CEO sees robots nearing AI breakthrough
Wang Xingxing says humanoid robots could eventually perform 80% of household tasks from simple voice or text commands, but cautions that the technology may still be years from that threshold.
The CEO of Chinese humanoid robot unicorn Unitree said on Thursday that the industry is approaching a potential “ChatGPT moment” for robot brains, as the company’s blockbuster Shanghai listing underscored China’s ambitions to lead the next frontier of AI-powered machines.
Shares in China’s best-known humanoid robot maker fell 11% on Thursday, a day after soaring nearly sixfold on their market debut. The sharp reversal highlighted both the extraordinary investor enthusiasm surrounding the fledgling industry and the expectations being placed on companies that Beijing sees as strategically important.
“We are marching towards a ‘ChatGPT moment’ in embodied intelligence,” said Wang Xingxing, Unitree’s founder and CEO, at the World Robot Conference in Beijing.
The global AI boom that has reshaped the economy was sparked in late 2022 by the breakthrough of ChatGPT and large language models, which triggered mass adoption of generative AI. No comparable inflection point has yet emerged for world models, the physical AI systems designed to help robots understand and navigate real-world environments.
Wang said the industry is approaching a breakthrough in which robots could be placed in unfamiliar environments and complete most tasks based on simple voice or text instructions.
“We hope that in the future, we can see a robot be introduced into an unfamiliar household and it can achieve approximately 80% of tasks successfully through voice or text commands,” he said.
“It is an important tipping point for the robot industry to usher in explosive growth.”
Despite the optimism, Wang cautioned that such a breakthrough remains some distance away. In an optimistic scenario, he said, a major leap in robot software could arrive within two to three years. In a less favorable scenario, it could take five to 10 years.
“Relative to the mood around World Robot Conference and Unitree’s spectacular IPO, Wang Xingxing was notably sober about current capabilities,” said Georg Stieler, head of automation at robotics consultancy Stieler.
Unitree is the world’s largest producer of robot dogs and the second-largest maker of humanoid robots by shipments, according to industry data.
The company rose to prominence through highly choreographed demonstrations of robots dancing and performing kung fu, many of them showcased on Chinese television. It is increasingly deploying its machines in industrial settings, although its IPO prospectus shows that most of its customers are universities and research institutions.
Wang He, founder of Chinese robotics startup Galbot, expects the industry’s “ChatGPT moment” to arrive by 2028. He defines that moment as the point at which robots can perform roughly 70% to 80% of everyday tasks without specialized training.
“With continued accumulation of data and further technological breakthroughs, we expect to reach the ‘ChatGPT moment’ for embodied intelligence by 2028,” he said.
Unitree is putting much of its resources behind the technology that could eventually make such a breakthrough possible.
Wang said the company’s largest current investment, in terms of both capital and manpower, is in world models. At the same time, he acknowledged that Unitree is “lagging behind” in applying physical AI models to real-world environments.
He also said humanoid robots are not yet capable enough for mass deployment, identifying the AI models that govern their decision-making and interactions as the industry’s biggest bottleneck.
Even so, Wang expects the sector to enter a decade of rapid development in which humanoid robots become increasingly autonomous, as advances in AI accelerate and language models become better at improving themselves.
China’s ambitions are backed by an enormous lead in manufacturing and deployment.
China delivered more than 40,000 humanoid robots in the first half of this year alone and accounted for 97% of global humanoid robot shipments, according to a report released Thursday by a Chinese humanoid robotics industry body.
Beijing is betting that robots can eventually replace human workers in repetitive, low-value and dangerous environments as the country grapples with a shrinking workforce and demographic decline.
Humanoids are gradually making their way onto factory floors and into logistics warehouses, but they remain less efficient than human workers in most applications.
The technology has also emerged as a new front in the U.S.-China technology rivalry.
Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned future imports of foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, citing national security concerns. The move represents a significant setback for Chinese robotics manufacturers seeking to expand internationally.
Several companies attending the World Robot Conference in Beijing told Reuters they were nevertheless looking to expand overseas.
