{"id":1446389,"date":"2023-12-28T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1446389"},"modified":"2023-12-28T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T03:40:00","slug":"is-the-us-ready-for-chinas-mass-produced-humanoid-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/is-the-us-ready-for-chinas-mass-produced-humanoid-robots\/1446389\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The US Ready For China&#8217;s Mass-Produced Humanoid Robots?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Is The US Ready For China&#8217;s Mass-Produced Humanoid Robots?<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/is-the-us-ready-for-chinas-mass-produced-humanoid-robots-5551039?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&amp;src_src=partner&amp;src_cmp=ZeroHedge\">Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Chinese regime has unveiled plans to mass produce humanoid robots<\/strong> in an apparent effort to insulate itself from reliance on foreign powers by replacing Chinese workers with machines.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/image_80%2873%29.jpg?itok=VofN5Tjr\"><em>(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/china\/china-unveils-plan-to-mass-produce-human-like-robots-calling-it-new-engine-for-growth-5526020\">plan<\/a> to mass-produce humanoid robots in a November guidance document. The sweeping ramifications of the policy are still being uncovered.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The strategy aims to make the CCP the world\u2019s leader in the field of robotics by building a \u201chumanoid robot innovation system,\u201d <\/strong>developing artificial brains and limbs by 2025, according to the document.<\/p>\n<p>By using a \u201cwhole-of-nation system,\u201d the document says, the regime can harness \u201cdisruptive\u201d technologies to \u201cprofoundly change human production and lifestyle and reshape the global industrial development pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The move carries national security implications and, according to several reports, will help the CCP maintain economic advantage even as its population dwindles following decades of severe restrictions on childbirth.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/bigdatachina.csis.org\/china-is-growing-old-before-it-becomes-rich-does-it-matter\/\">report<\/a> by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank found that the regime is effectively replacing people with robots to maintain a competitive edge in labor-intensive manufacturing industries.<\/p>\n<h2>Communist Robots<\/h2>\n<p>China\u2019s robotic push will also proliferate the CCP\u2019s communist ideology and serve as an invaluable tool for the regime to champion its own interests.<\/p>\n<p>In April, a draft <a href=\"https:\/\/carnegieendowment.org\/2023\/05\/16\/what-chinese-regulation-proposal-reveals-about-ai-and-democratic-values-pub-89766\">proposal<\/a> by the regime\u2019s internet regulator suggested that <strong>all content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) should be mandated to \u201creflect the socialist core values\u201d espoused by the CCP.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The regime\u2019s robotic guidance document goes further.<\/p>\n<p>According to the new document, all new robots and AI-powered artificial brains should be \u201cguided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adam Savit, director of the China Policy Initiative at the America First Policy Institute think tank, said that the regime could use the robots to spread communist ideology throughout the global marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>They will certainly try,<\/strong>\u201d Mr. Savit told The Epoch Times. \u201c<strong>The CCP takes advantage of any and all means available, especially innovative new technologies, to spread its ideology and expand its influence.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Savit pointed to social media giant TikTok, which is owned by the CCP-affiliated ByteDance, as \u201cthe most successful and disturbing example\u201d of the regime\u2019s use of technology to spread its worldview.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/commie%20bot.JPG?itok=6tkUkXb7\"><em>A man uses a mobile phone to take a photo of a Xiaomi robot at the 2023 World Robot Conference in Beijing on Aug. 16, 2023. (Wang Zhao\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To counter the risk, he said, the United States needs to do more to limit the outflow of its own research and technology to China to dampen the regime\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is an urgent need to curtail U.S. outbound investment into China, especially for critical high-tech sectors like AI, quantum computing, and advanced semiconductors,\u201d Mr. Savit said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>A Biden administration executive order limiting such investments is set to be enacted in 2024.<\/strong> It\u2019s a good start but it has been criticized for vague and likely ineffective enforcement mechanisms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ideological underpinnings of the robot initiative underscore two more of Beijing\u2019s strategic policies: military-civil fusion and forced technology transfer.<\/p>\n<p>Military-civil fusion, the policy through which Beijing seeks to ensure that all civil technologies also provide the party with military utility, is borne out in the guidance document\u2019s call to \u201csupport [robot] enterprises to join forces with universities and institutions,\u201d ensuring the regime can leverage the technology and any associated research.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, the initiative will likely increase the risk posed to U.S. companies and their intellectual property as the regime searches for ways to \u201cencourage foreign companies and institutions to set up R&amp;D centers in the country,\u201d where the CCP will have access to the related data.<\/p>\n<p>CCP access to foreign companies\u2019 data is a key issue in global security because of Chinese laws that categorize data as a national resource, thereby allowing the regime to seize any information stored on servers in the country.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/just%20you%20wait_0.JPG?itok=r6PW3RmF\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The push for mass adoption of humanoid robots will require untold amounts of data, as the guidance document outlines that the project will seek to build a large language model training database to train AI brains for its robots and to innovate the \u201cautomatic\u201d annotation of new data into usable information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Apart from data, the regime also seeks to develop its own high-end semiconductors to facilitate \u201cmotion control and cognitive decision-making\u201d <\/strong>in the robots, as well as \u201cthe integration of sensing, decision-making, and control\u201d mechanisms.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, the regime hopes to deploy its new communist humanoid robots to operate sensitive sites where it may have reservations about using human operators.<\/p>\n<p>According to the guidance document, such sites include hydropower stations, wind farms, and other critical electricity systems, as well as other \u201cstrategic locations\u201d where \u201chighly reliable\u201d robots would be preferred to their less expendable human counterparts.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Capturing Global Markets<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The CCP\u2019s robotic renaissance is already well underway.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, China <a href=\"https:\/\/ifr.org\/news\/world-robotics-2023-report-asia-ahead-of-europe-and-the-americas\">installed<\/a> 290,000 non-humanoid industrial robots. The United States, by comparison, installed 39,000.<\/p>\n<p>China has now <a href=\"https:\/\/ifr.org\/news\/china-overtakes-usa-in-robot-density\">surpassed<\/a> the United States in robot density, meaning it has deployed more robots relative to workers, and the communist nation now operates the largest operational stock of robots in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Such metrics are key to understanding the regime\u2019s ability to use automation to gain economic advantage in the years to come, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/ifr.org\/img\/worldrobotics\/Executive_Summary_WR_Industrial_Robots_2022.pdf\">report<\/a> by the International Federation of Robotics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Robot density is a key indicator of automation adoption in the manufacturing industry around the world<\/strong>,\u201d International Federation of Robotics President Marina Bill said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChina\u2019s rapid growth shows the power of its investment so far, but it still has much opportunity to automate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To that end, Beijing appears intent on capturing the robotic market abroad, using foreign technology and state-run research institutions to centralize power over the manufacturing process before shipping its robots worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iiss.org\/publications\/survival\/2018\/survival-global-politics-and-strategy-junejuly-2018\/603-02-friedberg\/\">report<\/a> by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank found that the CCP seeks to earn a long-term advantage by establishing and controlling the supply chains required to create advanced robotics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/robot%20fact.JPG?itok=TOYdUvjn\"><em>KUKA robotic arms operate semi-finished products on an air conditioner assembly line at a factory in Guangzhou, China, on July 16, 2022. (Jade Gao\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeijing aims both to achieve a high degree of self-sufficiency and to capture a significant share of the global market for a wide array of advanced products and components,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n<p>This could result in the regime obtaining significant economic and military advantage in the future due to the cascading effects of being the first to mass-produce humanoid robots. By controlling the initial technology, the regime can dictate how the technology evolves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>If it can gain an edge in what has been described as a fourth industrial revolution in manufacturing, while reducing its dependence on high-tech imports, China may be able to boost its own prospects for long-term growth while diminishing those of its competitors<\/strong>,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause future products and military systems will build on them, breakthroughs in technologies such as artificial intelligence could also yield enduring advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arthur Herman, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said that \u201cthe really scary thing\u201d about the regime\u2019s guidance document is that it could lead to the CCP gaining more influence in establishing international standards and rules over AI and robotics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can guess what that means: China\u2019s robotics industry becomes the global standard, pushing aside any competition, including setting the moral standard,\u201d Mr. Herman told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[It\u2019s] not a good sign if we want to have sensible and responsible standards for future development of this potentially disruptive technology [that] everyone can live with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Herman expressed optimism that the United States is seeing a proliferation of its own robotic companies. Still, he&#8217;s worried about the nation\u2019s lack of a coherent strategy for AI development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe difference is that, clearly, China sees this robot push as part of its $110 billion campaign announced in 2017 to become the world\u2019s leading AI nation by 2030,\u201d Mr. Herman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have a national AI strategy, let alone a strategy relating to the intersection of robotics and AI.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/is-the-us-ready-for-chinas-mass-produced-humanoid-robots-5551039?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&amp;src_src=partner&amp;src_cmp=ZeroHedge\"><strong>here&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Thu, 12\/28\/2023 &#8211; 17:40<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/us-ready-chinas-mass-produced-humanoid-robots\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/us-ready-chinas-mass-produced-humanoid-robots<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is The US Ready For China&#8217;s Mass-Produced Humanoid Robots? Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Chinese regime has unveiled plans&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}