In this CCF-GAIR, we can clearly feel a trend, and it is also a point that has been repeatedly mentioned by many experts in the past period: China can basically say that seize this wave of opportunities for artificial intelligence and robots. Research and manufacturing in this area have not been weaker or even ahead of the traditional developed countries such as Europe and America in certain aspects. In this conference, this trend is reflected in the praise from the guests such as directors and research directors of world-famous laboratories such as CSAIL for the development of China’s AI and robotics industry.
Of course, when invited to participate in this summit, even if it is to give the audience a face, they must also speak good things for China. However, even if we consider this point, we will find that the content of the scholar’s ​​words of praise to China has The more things like “food†and “beauty†that don’t matter, have turned into concrete direct praises for progress and leadership in Chinese related industry research.
A few words in the district can certainly not become any evidence or proud capital, but this should also be able to explain to some extent that China’s robotics and AI industries at least truly have the ability to compete with the traditional powers of Europe, the United States, and Japan on the same stage. strength.
In the production, research, and research institute of the world’s top experts held by foreign guests and entrepreneurs and investors on the morning of the 12th, a Chinese entrepreneur asked a question: Their company mainly focused on the research of joint robots, but found that The outstanding products in this area mainly come from Japan and Europe. Is it because the United States does not think this direction is important so that it does not invest in related areas?
Participants from left to right 1, 2, 5 were Vijay Kumar, Daniela Rus and Alonzo Kelly, respectively
However, the response of foreign experts was somewhat unexpected. Alonzo Kelly, director of research from the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, said:
The United States does not think that these industrial robots are not important, but it is only too slow. He said that his research center was established 15 years ago because the United States realized that it had lost to the research and production of industrial robots in Europe and Asia before it was established under the federal government's call and funding. However, these aids did not last long, and then slowly, perhaps because there are other more important projects, the intensity of assistance to the robot center has slowly been reduced. So far there has not been much improvement in this area.
Vijay Kumar, founder of drones, stated:
The original research mode of industrial robots actually originated in the United States. But later the United States lost its lead, for many reasons. Apart from such objective factors as the economic crisis, tax rates, and the lack of public policy support, the most important reason may actually be that the United States did not foresee the potential of robots in the future. In fact, until now, he still feels that the US’s predictability in artificial intelligence and robotics is not enough. However, the investment environment in the United States is that investors will be engrossed and madly obsessed with a field, and if they are successful, they will continue to invest in it. As a result, they will give up. This is the case in the United States. The innovation mechanism in the United States is very peculiar. In fact, it does not invest much in basic research. It is often a case of a relatively large-scale flow. The reasons for this situation are the attitude of the government and the people, and the style of investors. The basic research on scientific research in European countries is very solid. And the government there often advocates research and collaboration in this area to maintain its dominant position in this field. This is exactly what the United States is not good at. Therefore, in the future, the United States may still repeat the mistakes in other areas of robotics. But this does not mean that industrial robots are not important.
But Daniela Rus, director of the MIT CSAIL Laboratory, also mentioned that
American industrial robots have recently begun to show signs of recovery. Some startup companies in the United States began to study how to improve industrial robots, and people and robots can work together better. As said before, if there is a company that has made improvements in this area, more and more companies will follow up in this area. Therefore, there is no need to worry too much about this aspect.
In fact, if all of the “United States†in these descriptions of these experts are all replaced by “China,†it is believed that no one will doubt the authenticity of these words. Even many of them sound like they are describing China. After all, Chinese companies are known for a long time without profit from the long-term vision, but now this situation has somewhat improved. Perhaps we should be grateful that the Chinese government in this regard, like the European government described by Kumar, is gradually guiding entrepreneurs and scientists to pay attention to the investment in basic fields.
In fact, we look at the collection of papers in major academic conferences today. There are more and more Chinese influential papers. It has to be denied that China currently lags behind the United States in many areas of robotics for many years, but it is also an indisputable fact that China is speeding up to catch up and bred some real innovations in the catch-up. This cannot help but wondering how long it will take. , China can achieve comprehensive leadership in the field of AI and robotics worldwide?