Las Vegas (AFP) – Humanoid robots danced, somersaulted, dealt blackjack, and played ping-pong at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. However, some in the industry are growing impatient, yearning for these robots to become more useful rather than just a promise of future capabilities. As robots take the usual spotlight at the annual CES gadget fest, insiders caution that making them truly human-like will take several more years and require extensive training.
To become autonomous, humanoid robots need artificial intelligence that can translate what they see and hear into actions. This requirement exceeds the capabilities of today’s large language models, which power tools like ChatGPT. Training a large language model relies on vast amounts of data, primarily harvested from the internet, which proves to be of little use when it comes to human-like robots aimed at being functional in environments like kitchens or factories. “If you want (robots) to learn embodied things, you have to put them inside a body,” said Henny Admoni, an associate professor at the robotics institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Humanoid Guide founder Christian Rokseth, who specializes in this technology, likened the current situation to locking a child in a room and expecting it to learn about the world. Despite a notable acceleration in development last year, particularly in hardware, Rokseth expressed a degree of impatience with the pace of innovation. “They’ve shown robots dancing and doing kung fu; now show us that they can be productive,” he stated.
EngineAI founder Evan Yao emphasized that his Shenzhen-based company is collaborating with major tech firms like Amazon and Meta to give their creations intelligent capabilities. “We are trying to simulate humans, but the robots will never become human,” Yao explained as one of his robots kicked in his direction. “Because a human is emotional and much more.” Meanwhile, Yiran Sui was part of a Robotera team whose humanoid robot is being trained to complete the Beijing marathon in just a few months.
According to the Consumer Technology Association that runs CES, the robotics industry is showing dynamism and potential. It projects that the global market will reach $179 billion by 2030. The bulk of this growth is expected in factories, warehouses, and other business operations, where robots—not necessarily humanoid ones—operate in controlled environments. However, Artem Sokolov, founder of a humanoid robotics startup based in London, believes that humans work in factories and that robots mimicking their bodies can thrive there too.
South Korean automotive giant Hyundai used CES to unveil a humanoid robot named Atlas, which was created in collaboration with Boston Dynamics and is set to be tested in factories. Given the training limitations, industry trackers urge caution regarding companies claiming to have humanoid robots capable of operating autonomously without human overseers. “There has been a ton of new companies claiming that they are developing autonomous humanoid robots,” Admoni warned. “But these systems tend to be teleoperated; you have a person in a suit or using controllers, and every movement of that person is then translated into the robot.”
To address the training challenges, new startups are implementing methods such as having individuals wear cameras and haptic gloves while performing household tasks, according to Rokseth. “To make robots general machines, they need to be let out in the real world,” Rokseth concluded, emphasizing the necessity of environments beyond just assembly lines or warehouses.
© 2024 AFP
