The ninth Digital China Summit, held from Wednesday to Thursday in east China's Fuzhou City, is bringing spotlight to incorporating AI into smart manufacturing.
Some 6,000 technologies, products and projects are being showcased at the summit's on-site experience zone, according to the National Data Administration.
A batch of AI-powered "digital assemblers" exhibited at the event, capable of automatically processing order and making corresponding adjustments, are showing a trend of AI driving the manufacturing industry's transition from "mass production" to "customized production."
"The traditional assembly lines were generally purposed for mass production. For example, a production line for car doors is dedicated solely to that one purpose. But now our demands are diverse and varied, which would require customization and modifications. So we came up with this flexible manufacturing production model, supporting 48 different types of fixtures and capable of various tasks. It can automatically adapt, achieving rapid adjustment and rapid response for customized production," said Ren Yong, an exhibitor.
The demand for embodied intelligent robots in the smart manufacturing sector has increased significantly compared to last year. Some companies demonstrated on-site the training process of embodied intelligent robots handling non-standardized production scenarios, showing how they can sort various industrial parts into categories and complete packaging tasks for different products.
"For example, in industries such as automobile manufacturing, 3C (computer, communication and consumer electronics) products, and food processing, there is a huge demand for embodied intelligent robots. The orders we have received so far this year have grown by at least 30 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year. The entire industry is also building a large number of embodied intelligence training facilities across the country to carry out data collection work, providing a very good practical foundation for the future scenario-based and large-scale application of robots in more industrial fields," said Lai Jianqiang, another exhibitor.
Digital China Summit highlights "AI plus manufacturing" concept
China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.
Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.
"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.
China's development never a threat: FM spokesman
