Video of a Chinese humanoid factory plunges back into the uncanny valley

A 20-second video from inside a Chinese humanoid robot factory is causing some consternation on social media today. It shows a series of extremely realistic looking, partially skinned humanoids in construction.

The video, uploaded by user “meimei4515”, is uncredited but shows several moving androids with human-like hair and skin – in stark contrast to most general-purpose humanoids we would normally cover, which are designed to look like Look like robots instead of trying to fool anyone.

Here there are rows of pretty cyborg ladies, disembodied heads on bleachers, completely human-like presenter types in shirts and pants, and a surreal tree of humanoid arms that bend and twist their white-fingered hands in concert. It looks for all the world like a darker version Westworlds Backstage workshop.

@meimei4515 China uda buat robot manusia #china#robot ♬ suara asli – Amei 啊美

Whoever recorded the video begins by saying something in Chinese that means something like: “Before, the employees had already started mass production.”

What are we actually seeing here? As it turns out, the arm tree is the key to success. The Chinese company ExRobots has already shown it at exhibitions. According to the company's (translated) website, it “develops efficient and easy-to-use smart guide services for government agencies, medical institutions and the service retail sector.”

To showcase its wares, ExRobots runs an “Ex Future Science and Technology Museum” in the city of Dalian, which looks to us like a robot version of Madame Tussaud's wax museum, with Einstein and Edison among the animatronic characters on site. There's certainly no shame in indulging in fleshy excitement here – special care has clearly been taken on the breast-shaped fembots, right down to the goosebumps on the silicone leg skin.

The museum allows visitors to “drive” a humanoid head with their own facial expressions using motion capture, and there is a rotating pedestal you can stand on for three minutes to perform a 3D scan. After that, there may be an opportunity to capture the body parts 3D printed, as shown in the video below from China Global Television Network – the idea is to demonstrate the company's ability to produce custom-made animatronic mascots and presenters for corporate clients.

So no, dear dribbling crowds of social media commentators, you are not looking at your new AI friends. Nor are you dealing with a company that seems interested in useful humanoids. You are dealing with an advanced animatronics operation. The video grabs attention because this is a company designed to grab attention. There isn't much meat in this sandwich.

But humanoid space in general is absolutely meat sandwiches in mid-2024. This is a breakthrough year for general-purpose AI-powered robots, and Chinese companies like Unitree, UBTech/Baidu, Astribot, LimX, Kepler, Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and others are making real progress toward robot workers capable of learning and performing useful tasks.

In fact, China doesn't seem to be far behind North American companies like Tesla, Figure, Sanctuary, Agility, Apptronik and others. And we're really looking forward to learning more about what the granddaddy of this field – Boston Dynamics – is cooking up with its next-generation Atlas robot, which replaces the hydraulic motors of its highly sporty predecessor with electric actuators – and moves like no other humanoid, that we have ever seen.

So don't let sexy viral videos distract you – or at least they will if that's your thing – but the humanoid revolution is really coming into second gear in 2024 and, when combined with AI, promises to transform human society like no other to fundamentally change technologies before it.

Source: ExRobots