Scenarios showing smart robots transforming everyday life from night shifts at convenience stores to household services are displayed at the ongoing 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai.
In a simulated smart retail scenario, customers can simply select products on a tablet and place their orders, and the robot would get the products in less than 20 seconds. This efficient shopping experience is set to be shared in over 100 locations across the country this year.
"One solution it offers is that there are not that many orders at night. Using robots to perform these operations, the marginal costs can be further reduced as large-scale commercialization grows, making the service accessible to more customers," said Zhang Zhizheng, co-founder and head of large models at Galbot.
Beyond retail, new breakthroughs have also been made in service robots. Robots distributing cola and playing tai chi at the exhibition hall have drawn much attention.
Exhibitors said that precise hand movements are crucial for robots to truly make their way into human life.
"The robot's hand is almost the same size as mine, which means it can move with a sensitivity very similar to a human being's," said Qiu Heng, chief marketing officer of AgiBot.
Behind the dexterous hand is the maturity of embodied intelligence technology. The robot's "brain" is shifting from simply following commands to truly understanding human intentions and providing proactive assistance.
"Our platform functions like a robot with a brain, an open system built on a large model that empowers the robot's capabilities. For instance, we empower the robot with the abilities of perception, understanding, and decision-making," said Li Kan, president of Tencent East China Headquarters.
Smart robots serving daily life displayed at World AI Conference
A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.
The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.
Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.
"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.
These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.
"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.
Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
