World Robot Conference 2024 Grand Opening in Beijing: experts discuss AI governance and industry trends Adam Maysonet

On August 21st, the 2024 World Robot Conference with the theme of “Nurturing New Productivity and Sharing a New Intelligent Future” kicked off in Beijing. At the opening ceremony, Beijing Embodied Intelligent Robotics Innovation Center displayed the “Tiangong 1.2 MAX” embodied intelligent robot. With a height of 173 centimeters and a weight of 60 kilograms, the robot successfully picked up the conference badge with both hands and placed it accurately on the launching pad, marking the official start of the conference.

During the first two days of the conference, experts from many countries and regions around the world held in-depth discussions in the main forum of the conference. Participants came from China, Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, and engaged in intense exchanges on hot topics such as the development trend of the robotics industry, the future of humanoid robots and AI governance.

Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), revealed that as of July 2024, China holds more than 190,000 valid patents related to robotics, accounting for about two-thirds of the global total. China's robotics industry has made remarkable achievements, including technological innovation, market scale expansion, and improved governance and regulation. China has been the world's largest industrial robot market for eleven consecutive years, and robots are increasingly used in manufacturing and service industries. Xin also said that China will continue to promote basic research and key technology research to promote the high-quality development of the robotics industry.

Marina Beer, president of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), spoke highly of China's achievements in the field of robotics, saying that China has become an important player in the global robotics market. Meanwhile, Juha Ronin, President of the European Robotics Association (ERA), pointed out that the standardization of robotic systems and software architectures still needs to be improved, and that the degree of standardization in the field of AI is relatively low, which requires further quality tests and research.

At the conference, Qiao Hong, chairman of the World Robotics Cooperation Organization and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, released a report on the “Outlook of Ten Trends in Humanoid Robots”. The report predicts the future development trend of humanoid robots in terms of components and materials, motion intelligence, multimodal large models, etc., especially mentioning that embodied intelligence will become a new direction for humanoid robot research. Embodied intelligence robots will simulate the human musculoskeletal system and neural mechanism from the inside out, exploring the realization of highly dexterous and intelligent behaviors.

AI governance and the moral and ethical issues of humanoid robots have also become the focus of discussion at the conference. The report recommended ensuring the ethical design and application of robots through the development of laws and regulations, and called for international collaboration to address the social challenges posed by AI and robotics. Chee-Fai Tan, chairman of the ASEAN Intelligent Industry Alliance, emphasized the need for global cooperation in the governance of robotics and AI, and made recommendations to improve worker welfare and skills training to ensure that robotics can assist rather than replace humans.

The 2024 World Robot Conference provides an important communication platform for the development and application of global robotics technology, demonstrating international cooperation and innovation in the field of robotics.