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

China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao outlined the key priorities of the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, which opened on Friday in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.

In an interview with CGTN ahead of the two-day meeting, Wang said free trade, digital cooperation and green economy are high on the agenda of the meeting.

"The key areas include advancing regional economic integration and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, supporting the World Trade Organization (WTO) in strengthening digital cooperation and developing green economy. At present, the international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and chaos, with intensified geopolitical instability. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses serious challenges to the international economic and trade order, disrupting global and Asia-Pacific development. Against this backdrop, all parties have higher expectations for this trade ministers' meeting, hoping that it can build consensus and deliver outcomes," Wang said.

This year marks China's third time hosting the APEC meetings and the 35th anniversary of its membership.

By 2025, China had become the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies. Trade between China and APEC economies reached 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 57.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.

China has signed 24 free trade agreements or economic and trade arrangements with 31 countries and regions, including 15 APEC economies. In recent years, China has also completed upgrades of free trade agreements with APEC economies such as Singapore and Peru.

The minister said that China has always been a firm supporter and an important contributor to APEC.

"We have actively shared our vast market and development opportunities with all parties. China's door to the world will only open wider and wider. Facing the common challenges, China will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, further deepen reform, expand high-standard opening-up, and continue to provide new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region and the world with its new achievements in Chinese modernization," the minister said.

China's Commerce Minister outlines priorities for 32nd APEC trade ministers' meeting