Humanoid robots take center stage at Silicon Valley summit

Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors—too complicated, capital-intensive, and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do. Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google, and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry. Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are “going to become the norm.” "The combination of AI and robotics has given robotics a brand new life," Alaoui said. "Humanoids are here to stay. Embodied AI in general is gonna just be here to stay. Robotics will change every single industry as we know it,” he added. Disney's contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of “Frozen” character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris this year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human—or a snowman—are already here, but the timeline for “general purpose” robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away. Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that's a temple to Silicon Valley's previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon. Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America. China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate in 2024 “to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025,” said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinese firms dominated the expo section of the summit. This article was provided by The Associated Press.