Shanghai Releases First Guidelines for Humanoid Robots, Focusing on Risk Control and International Collaboration

Shanghai unveils China's first humanoid robot governance rules at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The guidelines highlight risk management and the protection of human security and dignity. Recommendations include danger warning protocols, emergency response systems, and user training.

Credit: AFP

These guidelines, announced at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), stress the need of risk management and international collaboration in the development and deployment of humanoid robots. The move comes as industry titans such as Tesla demonstrate their own automatons at the conference, illustrating the growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

The rules specify that humanoid robot manufacturers must ensure that their products do not endanger human security and properly protect human dignity. To accomplish this, the guidelines advise the installation of risk warning mechanisms and emergency response systems. Furthermore, users should be trained in the ethical and legal usage of these technologies.

The document was co-written by five Shanghai-based business bodies, including the Shanghai Law Society, the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence business Association, and the National and Local Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre. These associations seek to encourage global collaboration in the humanoid robot sector by lobbying for the creation of a global governance framework and an international think tank dedicated to the regulation of these machines.

Several robotics companies displayed their most recent products at the WAIC. Tesla, in particular, sparked widespread interest with its second-generation humanoid robot, Optimus. Optimus, which was developed utilising Tesla's own neural network and computer vision technology, has yet to go into full production. While the majority of the 18 humanoid robots on display came from Chinese exhibitors, firms throughout the world are working to create more practical and cost-effective machines with a familiar form factor evocative of those seen in science fiction.

China has set ambitious targets for mass manufacturing of humanoid robots by 2025, with the goal of achieving global leadership in the sector by 2027, according to a plan published last year by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The MIIT sees humanoid robots as "an important new engine of economic growth" in China by 2027, with widespread usage in fields such as healthcare, home services, agriculture, and logistics.

Chinese corporations have been working hard to catch up with their American counterparts in important areas such as artificial intelligence in order to achieve technological self-sufficiency. Between 2014 and 2023, Chinese companies submitted six times as many generative AI patents as their US counterparts, according to statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

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• Shanghai releases China's first governance guidelines for humanoid robots at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference.

• Guidelines emphasise risk control and the protection of human security and dignity.

• Recommendations include the implementation of risk warning procedures, emergency response systems, and user training.

Source: YAHOO