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Unitree's founder says humanoids haven't had their ChatGPT moment yet
RoboResale
At the World Robot Conference in Beijing, Wang Xingxing said robots can now walk, run and flip, but still can't do most useful work on their own.
More than 300 exhibitors brought robots to the World Robot Conference in Beijing in August, many of them humanoids that walked, danced and boxed. Unitree's founder, Wang Xingxing, told the Financial Times the industry still hasn't had its ChatGPT moment.
Walking is solved, working isn't
The progress is in movement. Humanoids now balance, run and get up after a fall far better than they did two years ago. What's missing is autonomy: walking into a place a robot has never seen and doing useful work without a person guiding it.
Wang has long argued that AI models, not motors or batteries, are what hold robots back. At the conference he spoke about the industry's next step, from exhibits to products used in homes and factories.
Until robots can work on their own, most humanoids will be bought for research, teaching and shows.
That shapes the used market too. Today's humanoids mostly belong to labs, schools and event companies, and that's where the first second-hand ones are coming from.
