Unitree founder expects major development of humanoid robot in 2025

China

Unitree founder expects major development of humanoid robot in 2025

2025-02-19 11:49 Last Updated At：19:57

Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of leading Chinese robotics firm Unitree, has expressed the belief that humanoid robots will see a significant development in 2025.

Speaking to reporters after attending Monday's symposium on private enterprises at which Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech, Wang said he expects the development of AI-powered humanoid robots to reach a new level by the end of this year.

"AI-powered robots are evolving very fast every day, faster than I expected, and giving me big surprises every day. We need to get the AI model of the robot right, and when it's right, it's just a matter of training it with better AI computing power, which has greatly accelerated technological progress in this area," said Wang.

Wang's company drew attention this year during the CMG Spring Festival Gala, where its robots, equipped with advanced speech recognition and emotional AI, performed a folk dance in cooperation with human dancers.

More software upgrades have been completed in the past 20 days since the gala, according to the entrepreneur.

"There were people helping the robots to leave the stage during the Spring Festival Gala, which was just to add to the fun and more interaction between robots and human dancers. Of course we just recently completed another software algorithm upgrade to the humanoid robot to make it dance more smoothly. The robots can now dance better than most people," said Wang.

Wang expects humanoid robots to enter the service industry very soon, but said it will take longer for them to become part of people's daily lives due to higher safety requirements.

"I personally believe that by the end of this year, the development of AI-powered humanoid robots will reach a new level. If things go well, I think we will see their application in the service industry or some industrial sectors next year or the year after. But the progress for humanoid robots for home might be a little slower because the higher safety requirements ask for more mature technology," said Wang.

He also expressed his excitement to join the symposium, saying he was inspired and encouraged by President Xi.

"It was a great honor for me, but of course there was also a lot of pressure, because I believe we should continue to work hard. All the entrepreneurs were inspired by General Secretary Xi, and everyone was in high spirits and had high morale," said Wang.

Scholars warn against right-wing politics reflected in Japanese PM's remarks

International relations experts from Japan and some other countries warned against the rise of right-wing militarism tendencies in the Japanese government reflected in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent Taiwan-related remarks.

Critics say such blatant disregard of history and basic principles of international relations could have very dangerous impacts, damaging mutual trust Asian countries have worked hard to build and threating peace and stability in the region.

"Sanae Takaichi say that a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency. This statement is very dangerous. It breaks basic principles of international law and international relations. It also interferes in China's internal affairs and try to pull Japan into a regional conflict. This work shows that some Japanese politicians are moving forward right-wing ideas and risky military thinking," said Lim Wen Jye, a senior researcher at Malaysia's Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.

"To my view, Takaichi is simply a puppet for these forces that are being activated - the old military forces, the right-wing forces in Japan," said Stephen Brawer, an international relations expert and chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden.

In Japan, scholars have stressed the importance of stable bilateral relations with China and urged the prime minister to withdraw erroneous remarks.

"From a diplomatic perspective, existing agreements between Japan and China were overturned. When Sino-Japanese relations were normalized, China's approach to Japan was to make a distinction between Japanese militarists and ordinary citizens, and not to seek reparations. However, the Japanese government must bear its due responsibility for the past," said political economist Kazuhide Uekusa.