Robobusiness: Entrepreneurs look at the potential of AI

Global Business

On the Robobusiness stage, NASA scientists and Fortune 500 executives marvel at the potential of artificial intelligence. Travis Briggs heads Robo Global, an index fund that tracks publicly traded robotics and automation companies.

CGTN’s Mark Niu reports.

”What you are seeing right now is a declining cost curve and these robots are going from being historically dumb to being very, very smart,” Briggs said.

IAM Robotic’s “Swift” just became the first robot to be granted a U.S. patent for picking items off the shelves in warehouses.

“It’s about the same. That’s one of the things that we’ve really innovated on is speed. So I think we’re the first company to deploy a robot in a setting otherwise meant for a person that’s performing at the same level of productivity that a person would hit,” Tom Galluzzo, IAM Robotics Founder & CEO said.

With robots increasingly becoming autonomous, there’s also a growing need for them to better interact with humans. Take for example the Stanford creation, Jackrabbot. It’s actually leaning through AI to respect my personal space.

“As it goes forward, humans are also getting more familiar with the robots and feeling more comfortable with the robots. So they will kind of adapt to each other,” said Amir Sadeghian, Stanford University Ph.D. candidate.

iPal robots are really turning up the charm with the ability to entertain the elderly and teach children English especially in China.

“The robots have to get smarter. They have to fit in more naturally with human’s lives. Now it’s going to be a while before it can be a full scale companion for an adult. But for children and providing additional services for elderly care, we think we can do a good enough of a job,” John Ostrem, AvatarMind CEO said.

Concern is growing over how the next wave of smart robots will impact jobs. But many roboticists here believe productivity will skyrocket once robots and humans best learn how to work side by side