Robots and AI Are Already Remaking the Chinese Economy (msn.com)
- Reference: 0180231335
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/28/1435209/robots-and-ai-are-already-remaking-the-chinese-economy
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/robots-and-ai-are-already-remaking-the-chinese-economy/ar-AA1R5dx3
The nation's stock of operational robots surpassed 2 million in 2024, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Of 131 factories globally recognized by the World Economic Forum for boosting productivity through cutting-edge technologies like AI, 45 are in mainland China compared to three in the US.
At Midea's washing machine factory in Jingzhou, an AI "factory brain" manages 14 virtual agents that coordinate robots and machines on the floor. The home-appliance giant reports that its revenue per employee grew nearly 40% between 2015 and 2024, and processes that once took 15 minutes now take 30 seconds. Down jacket maker Bosideng has cut sample production time from 100 days to 27 days using AI design tools, reducing development costs by 60%. At the port of Tianjin, scheduling that previously required 24 hours now takes 10 minutes, and 88% of large container equipment is automated. The port's operator says it requires 60% fewer workers than traditional facilities.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/robots-and-ai-are-already-remaking-the-chinese-economy/ar-AA1R5dx3
Not that new (Score:3)
If you apply "old school" industrial automation to a partly manual process, then getting 40% more worker productivity is hardly surprising. China, despite its rapid growth, is still in the final stages of industrializing. There's still lots of efficiency to be had. The US has been putting robots in factories since the 70's, so most of the low hanging fruit is already automated.
Also, beware what people are calling AI. In the industrial automation space, every vendor has been calling their product "AI" for the last 5 or 10 years. When you press them on it, it's often no more advanced than a PID controller or a few if/then statements. Our plant is more willing to take on new ideas than most, but the only real AI that I've seen installed on a plant floor over the last decade were some advanced vision-enabled picking systems. I'm sure someone has hooked an LLM to a plant-floor system somewhere, but I've not seen it yet. Nor have I seen a humanoid robot or a robot dog pay for itself. Even cobots only have mediocre uptake (but we are using them).
And finally, take stories out of China with a grain of salt. Yes, there's massive industrialization going on there, and the engineers working there are smart and motivated, but the government interferes heavily in the market. For instance, I've heard first-hand accounts from people on business trips there, where a truck was offloading several brand new CNC milling machines at a manufacturer, and the story was that these were just machines that the government had purchased and provided the company with the idea, "here, put these to good use." There's constant top-down subsidies being handed out, and it results in huge over-production problems. There are parking lots full of brand new EVs that dealers have written off because they can't sell them all. There are fields of solar panels producing power that can't get to market because there isn't enough local demand, and the power lines to the major centers aren't big enough to support the whole load.
Put 100s of millions out of work... (Score:2)
... then see how well your economy performs when you have mass civil unrest. And all the tech bros who BS about paying people to do nothing using AI profits - yeah, people on benefits always find constructive things to do with their time, they never get depressed due to lack of purpose and end up on drinks, drugs or in prison.
i see a movie script (Score:2)
humans automate everything, then get wiped out. yet the robots just keep going.
Years ago the Chinese government (Score:2)
Stepped in and prevented companies from automating factory jobs in order to prevent social unrest. Now that Xi is an absolute dictator they're not as concerned as they used to be and they are moving to automate.
I've said it before but if you Google you will find an article about how 70% of middle class jobs in America got taken by automation since 1980.
Automation has devoured the middle class. We can't do anything about it because there really isn't a solution.
Nobody is going to redistribute weal
Interesting to see political impact (Score:2)
One of Chinaâ(TM)s economyâ(TM)s purpose was to provide jobs while keeping labor costs low. This helped avoid political unrest. If AI and robotics change the deal it will be interesting to see the societal implications and impacts.