Humanoid robots land jobs as drugstore clerks in Beijing

Residents in Beijing are getting a taste of the future as humanoid robots receive certification to process the online medicine orders, marking the latest push by China to expand artificial intelligence (AI)'s role to healthcare services.

As part of the country's first pilot zone for the large-scale application of intelligent pharmacy robots, a retail pharmacy in Beijing's Haidian District -- where robots play a key role in operations -- recently obtained its drug distribution certificate.

Galbot, a humanoid robot that had won over audiences during the Year of the Horse's Spring Festival Gala, the world's most-watched television event, with its impressive skills in picking up glass, folding clothes, and grilling sausages, has now officially started work at this drugstore. It has become the country's first certified intelligent retail robot for pharmaceuticals.

Once an order is placed, without any human intervention, the robot can autonomously retrieve, verify, and dispense the medication. Customers simply need to confirm the last four digits of their phone number to collect their purchase.

These humanoid drugstore clerks are packed with high technology. According to their developers, real-world commercial settings present significant challenges due to the wide variety of medicine packaging shapes, demanding a lot of the robot's capabilities.

"In an actual pharmacy, (medicine packaging comes in many forms). Besides boxes, there are transparent bottles and even flexible packaging. You'll find that grasping flexible packaging is different from what the robot encounters during training, because the shape of such packaging changes depending on how it's placed. This requires our robot has truly generalized recognition and grasping abilities. Currently, our robot's accuracy for generalized grasping has exceeded 99.9 percent," said Zhao Yuli, chief strategy officer of Galbot, a rising humanoid robot startup.

The humanoid robot currently handles only over-the-counter (OTC) medicine sales, with licensed pharmacists remaining on site to oversee prescription medicines and offer expert advice. "Prescription drugs, by regulation, require a licensed pharmacist to review the prescription. A robot cannot perform this review. For pharmacies introducing robots, our focus will be on whether the robot's involvement affects drug quality. For example, whether its grasping action damages the box or the medication inside or whether its data can be transmitted in real-time to the pharmacy's management system," said Ma Xin, head of the drug and medical device distribution supervision management section of Haidian's market supervision bureau.

Humanoid robots land jobs as drugstore clerks in Beijing

Pakistani warplanes struck several locations across Afghanistan on Thursday night and Friday, killing at least six people, including a woman and a child, and wounding more than a dozen others, local officials said.

The strikes hit a fuel depot near the country's Kandahar Airport, areas in the capital Kabul, and the eastern Nangarhar Province.

A Pakistani security source said the strikes targeted hideouts belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

In Kabul's 21st police district, one of the areas hit, a market was left in ruins. Several cars were destroyed, and windows of buildings in the market and nearby areas were shattered. A crater caused by the Pakistani airstrikes was also visible.

"This is my car. I had parked it here, and it was the only way I could bring food to my family's table. It was my sole source of income and my only means of employment. Now my car is in this condition, and I have no other way to provide for my family," said Mohamad Ghulam, a taxi driver.

The airstrikes destroyed a house, killing four members of a single family. More than a dozen other households in the area reported their homes either fully or partially destroyed.

One of the victims was 22-year-old Hedayatullah, who had just been married. He was killed alongside his pregnant wife, as well as his brother and sister.

"Hedayatullah got married nine months ago. His brother was 18 years old. He himself was 22 years old, he also had a 12-year-old sister, and his wife was about 19 years old and was pregnant," said Ghulam Sakhi, a relative of the victims.

"This neighbor of ours was a family of five. Their mother was not present at the moment of the bombardment, but the rest of them lost their lives. It was Hedayatuallah's family. From my own family, two of my daughters, my sister-in-law, my brother, and two nieces got injured," said Mohamad Homayoun, a survivor.

In the past weeks, scores of people from both sides have been killed or injured in the conflict between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, according to officials from the two countries.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has called for an immediate halt to cross-border clashes, warning that the escalating violence is driving a surge in civilian casualties and deepening a humanitarian crisis.

At least 6 killed, more than a dozen wounded in Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan: officials