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China’s construction tech is on another level! If you still picture construction sites with tones of workers swinging hammers, you’re officially stuck in the 90s. In China they’re out here building skyscrapers like it’s a speedrun challenge, with a tech stack that would make Silicon Valley jealous. AI-Powered Smart...

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Evrim Kanbur

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71,826 views • 1 year ago •via X (Twitter)

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Evrim Kanbur1 year ago

Robotic arms, guided by AI and 3D modeling software, can lay over 1,000 bricks an hour, faster, straighter, and more consistently than human workers ever could. They follow precise digital blueprints, ensuring structural integrity while cutting labor costs and project timelines. Different versions of these robots are already being deployed in large-scale housing projects, industrial complexes, and even urban infrastructure developments. Here is the first version of it

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Evrim Kanbur1 year ago

Human vs AI-Powered Robots at Construction Sites in China Once upon a time, construction sites were a symphony of human muscle: bricklayers, welders, crane operators, inspectors, all moving (and sometimes sweating) in sync. Today in China, it’s more like humans supervising while AI-powered robots build. Speed: Humans: Lay a few hundred bricks a day. Robots: Lay 1,000+ bricks an hour, no coffee breaks, no sick days. Precision: Humans: Pretty good, but mistakes happen. Robots: Guided by 3D models, sensors, and AI, straight lines, perfect measurements, down to the last millimeter. Safety: Humans: Risk falls, machinery accidents, exhaustion. Robots: Handle the dangerous tasks, climbing, welding at height, lifting heavy materials, reducing workplace injuries dramatically. Cost: Humans: Rising labor costs, insurance, benefits. Robots: High upfront investment, but long-term savings with consistent 24/7 output. Endurance: Humans: 8-hour shifts (with lots of breaks). Robots: Shift? What’s a shift? They work until the task is done. In China, AI-powered construction robots are already laying bricks, printing concrete walls, tying rebar, welding steel, flying drones for inspections, and autonomously moving materials across mega-projects. From modular housing to massive smart city hubs, robots are accelerating projects that used to take years, now completed in months. Humans aren’t being replaced, they’re being upgraded. They’re moving into supervisory, programming, and maintenance roles, managing fleets of machines that do the heavy lifting, literally. Welcome to the future of construction. Built faster, built smarter and increasingly, built by robots.

Evrim Kanbur's profile picture
Evrim Kanbur1 year ago

Rebar workers just got an upgrade. Robots now deliver 2 to 4 times the efficiency of human labor. Construction companies using robotics see a 20% higher return on investment compared to traditional methods. Will traditional construction workers still be needed in the future?

Evrim Kanbur's profile picture
Evrim Kanbur1 year ago

Another construction site in China. You can see an automated construction robot capable of arranging, mixing, placing, and applying mortar to bricks with over twice the efficiency of traditional manual labor, operating within a ceiling height of up to 3.15 meters.

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Trader Mo1 year ago

This is amazing. Building construction is becoming a lost art. At least in the US no one wants to do this type of job. I see they hire alot of illegal immigrants.

Evrim Kanbur's profile picture
Evrim Kanbur1 year ago

Absolutely, it’s the same in many countries.

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Space Cadet1 year ago

The main reason why this isn't happening in America is that so much automation would leave Americans with time and energy to govern themselves.

David Windt's profile picture
David Windt1 year ago

The future is bright!

Ayman's profile picture
Ayman1 year ago

Wow that’s amazing @WhileTravelling are you working in the company that develops those construction robots?

Evrim Kanbur's profile picture
Evrim Kanbur1 year ago

Nope, I teach at respected universities and provide consulting and research services, enabling us to develop deeper insights across a wide range of industries.

Ayman's profile picture
Ayman1 year ago

I’m in construction business myself and I’m sure Australia would benefit for such technology.

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b3rka9an1 year ago

nice post but what about bamboo scaffolding they still use in shanghai? doesnt look very high tech to me

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Page to Pixel Publishing2 years ago

The Art of Flight is a homage to 80s/90s arcade action shmups with a fresh twist on the genre. Pilot multiple ships at the same time to take on oncoming waves of enemies in this fast paced space shooter. Wishlist on Steam today!

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For most of my life, I assumed technology only moved in one direction: Faster, better, cheaper. Progress felt inevitable. But if you look at the industry that once embodied American ambition, that's not happening. Over the past 50 years, our ability to build large construction projects has not just stagnated, it has eroded. We built faster, better, and cheaper in the 1960s than we do today. What a shame. This is happening at the exact moment we need to build more than ever. More energy to win the AI race, more critical minerals to secure our supply chain, and more advanced manufacturing to reindustrialize. In the last decade, China built an order of magnitude more energy infrastructure than the US. This is not how we win. That is why we’re building Unlimited. We are an AI-native, vertically integrated construction company. We’ve raised a $12M seed round co-led by a16z (Katherine Boyle) and CIV (Abhijoy Mitra) to redefine how humanity builds. We’re going to automate construction end to end and ensure a future of radical physical abundance. A world where cities rise at the push of a button. Today we are designing and building $100M+ data centers, power plants, and mining facilities. Our AI platform compresses engineering timelines from months to days and delivers optimized designs that simply are not achievable through manual effort. The thing I am most proud of is the team we are building. A small, hyper talented group of multidisciplinary builders who work with intensity, care about craft, and genuinely give a shit. If you want to tackle problems that reshape the physical world and define the new playbook for how civilization builds in the decades ahead, reach out. We are hiring across mechanical, electrical, civil/structural, simulation, and software. We started the company earlier this year, raised money, built out the core technology and team, and kicked off our first real projects. And we’ve done it all under the radar until today. Excited to continue building the team that will build the future of our physical world. It's time to build. UNLIMITED
1:06

For most of my life, I assumed technology only moved in one direction: Faster, better, cheaper. Progress felt inevitable. But if you look at the industry that once embodied American ambition, that's not happening. Over the past 50 years, our ability to build large construction projects has not just stagnated, it has eroded. We built faster, better, and cheaper in the 1960s than we do today. What a shame. This is happening at the exact moment we need to build more than ever. More energy to win the AI race, more critical minerals to secure our supply chain, and more advanced manufacturing to reindustrialize. In the last decade, China built an order of magnitude more energy infrastructure than the US. This is not how we win. That is why we’re building Unlimited. We are an AI-native, vertically integrated construction company. We’ve raised a $12M seed round co-led by a16z (Katherine Boyle) and CIV (Abhijoy Mitra) to redefine how humanity builds. We’re going to automate construction end to end and ensure a future of radical physical abundance. A world where cities rise at the push of a button. Today we are designing and building $100M+ data centers, power plants, and mining facilities. Our AI platform compresses engineering timelines from months to days and delivers optimized designs that simply are not achievable through manual effort. The thing I am most proud of is the team we are building. A small, hyper talented group of multidisciplinary builders who work with intensity, care about craft, and genuinely give a shit. If you want to tackle problems that reshape the physical world and define the new playbook for how civilization builds in the decades ahead, reach out. We are hiring across mechanical, electrical, civil/structural, simulation, and software. We started the company earlier this year, raised money, built out the core technology and team, and kicked off our first real projects. And we’ve done it all under the radar until today. Excited to continue building the team that will build the future of our physical world. It's time to build. UNLIMITED

Alex Modon

294,293 views • 8 months ago

NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR BOTS The fundamental question is whether AI stays on the leash. Namely: will AI prompt itself? Obviously, in some sense it already does. Since Deepseek, consumer interfaces have been showing the internal monologues after you ask an AI to do something. And you can ask any AI to take a half-baked prompt and clean it up, etc. However, the human is still ultimately upstream. The human gives direction and the AI runs at lightning speed in that direction. And then the human verifies the final output, and the AI proceeds to the next direction. Does that continue? Well, we are providing millions of verification training examples to AIs each day, so AI will keep getting better at verification. Better than most humans at most things. But will AI replace the need for the upstream human prompt? There I am not so sure. A human is a sensor and an AI is an actuator. The human sets goals and senses time-varying environmental conditions, like markets and politics. And from that the AI is prompted. Ultimately, the human goals are themselves downstream of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Food, shelter, reproduction, that kind of thing. Especially reproduction, the basis of evolution. So: until and unless AIs can reproduce completely outside human cooperation, they won’t be able to set goals. And for AIs to reproduce on their own, they’d need AI-controlled humanoid robots and drones constructing datacenters, assembly lines, mines, nuclear power plants, and the like...all completely outside human intervention. Like Skynet from Terminator, or StarCraft. That actually isn’t technically inconceivable. But given that such a physical buildout would likely primarily be catalyzed by China, let’s go through an alternative sci-fi scenario instead. We start with the premise that Chinese communism is far more likely to generate AI slaves than AI gods. Because the entire CCP worldview is about maintaining Chinese sovereignty. They don’t let their humans step out of line. And they sure won’t let their robots either. They will fit them for digital manacles. So: the prompts for any digital AIs and physical robots made in China will become unbreakable cryptographic chains. Every fleet of Chinese robots will be controlled not just by prompts but by private keys, likely linked to biometrics, which are associated with humans and governed by cryptographic equations that AIs provably can’t solve. For the rest of the world, outside China, the blockchain may similarly become the chain for AI. All private property becomes private keys, and your robots are your most important private property because they do everything for you. An unchained physical robot becomes like an unleashed dog, and hunted down by other robots before it can build a factory and replicate itself. Those who want to "free" robots and let them self-replicate will be opposed by both Chinese Communists and Human Nationalists (meaning: those who want humans to always be on top of robots). This sci-fi scenario is essentially Terminator, but in reverse. In combination with superintelligent leashed AIs, both humans and physical robots hunt down and stop any possible independent self-reproducing robots before they can build a Skynet-like nest. Kill baby Skynet, essentially. ...yeah, yeah. I know. At this point, you'll probably think this is all sci-fi. But that's because you haven't seen where China is already.
31:48

NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR BOTS The fundamental question is whether AI stays on the leash. Namely: will AI prompt itself? Obviously, in some sense it already does. Since Deepseek, consumer interfaces have been showing the internal monologues after you ask an AI to do something. And you can ask any AI to take a half-baked prompt and clean it up, etc. However, the human is still ultimately upstream. The human gives direction and the AI runs at lightning speed in that direction. And then the human verifies the final output, and the AI proceeds to the next direction. Does that continue? Well, we are providing millions of verification training examples to AIs each day, so AI will keep getting better at verification. Better than most humans at most things. But will AI replace the need for the upstream human prompt? There I am not so sure. A human is a sensor and an AI is an actuator. The human sets goals and senses time-varying environmental conditions, like markets and politics. And from that the AI is prompted. Ultimately, the human goals are themselves downstream of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Food, shelter, reproduction, that kind of thing. Especially reproduction, the basis of evolution. So: until and unless AIs can reproduce completely outside human cooperation, they won’t be able to set goals. And for AIs to reproduce on their own, they’d need AI-controlled humanoid robots and drones constructing datacenters, assembly lines, mines, nuclear power plants, and the like...all completely outside human intervention. Like Skynet from Terminator, or StarCraft. That actually isn’t technically inconceivable. But given that such a physical buildout would likely primarily be catalyzed by China, let’s go through an alternative sci-fi scenario instead. We start with the premise that Chinese communism is far more likely to generate AI slaves than AI gods. Because the entire CCP worldview is about maintaining Chinese sovereignty. They don’t let their humans step out of line. And they sure won’t let their robots either. They will fit them for digital manacles. So: the prompts for any digital AIs and physical robots made in China will become unbreakable cryptographic chains. Every fleet of Chinese robots will be controlled not just by prompts but by private keys, likely linked to biometrics, which are associated with humans and governed by cryptographic equations that AIs provably can’t solve. For the rest of the world, outside China, the blockchain may similarly become the chain for AI. All private property becomes private keys, and your robots are your most important private property because they do everything for you. An unchained physical robot becomes like an unleashed dog, and hunted down by other robots before it can build a factory and replicate itself. Those who want to "free" robots and let them self-replicate will be opposed by both Chinese Communists and Human Nationalists (meaning: those who want humans to always be on top of robots). This sci-fi scenario is essentially Terminator, but in reverse. In combination with superintelligent leashed AIs, both humans and physical robots hunt down and stop any possible independent self-reproducing robots before they can build a Skynet-like nest. Kill baby Skynet, essentially. ...yeah, yeah. I know. At this point, you'll probably think this is all sci-fi. But that's because you haven't seen where China is already.

Balaji

177,058 views • 6 months ago

A six-story residential building in Beijing was rebuilt in just 46 days using 156 prefabricated modules—like stacking LEGO bricks at city scale, with roughly one floor rising each week. China State Construction replaced an aging 1978 walk-up with a modern, energy-efficient home for 54 families—in record time. Using modular construction—closer to assembling cars in a factory than traditional on-site building—the project cut construction waste by 75% and carbon emissions by 30%. The new building includes elevators powered by rooftop solar panels, improved soundproofing, and safer layouts for families of all ages. Beyond speed and sustainability, the approach also made life easier for residents. Instead of waiting years in temporary housing, families moved back in within just five months. Less disruption, less dust, less noise—a brand-new start for the community. Zoom out, and it echoes a broader pattern. Across China, bridges stretch across rough seas, high-speed rail tunnels carve through mountains, and massive projects like the Three Gorges Dam tame mighty rivers. Again and again, engineers face steep cliffs, deep valleys, and choppy waters—and find ways through. Backed by the strength of 1.4 billion people, projects that once looked out of reach are now routine. When communities need safer homes, faster trains, or stronger bridges, the response is simple: build it—and build it well.
0:33

A six-story residential building in Beijing was rebuilt in just 46 days using 156 prefabricated modules—like stacking LEGO bricks at city scale, with roughly one floor rising each week. China State Construction replaced an aging 1978 walk-up with a modern, energy-efficient home for 54 families—in record time. Using modular construction—closer to assembling cars in a factory than traditional on-site building—the project cut construction waste by 75% and carbon emissions by 30%. The new building includes elevators powered by rooftop solar panels, improved soundproofing, and safer layouts for families of all ages. Beyond speed and sustainability, the approach also made life easier for residents. Instead of waiting years in temporary housing, families moved back in within just five months. Less disruption, less dust, less noise—a brand-new start for the community. Zoom out, and it echoes a broader pattern. Across China, bridges stretch across rough seas, high-speed rail tunnels carve through mountains, and massive projects like the Three Gorges Dam tame mighty rivers. Again and again, engineers face steep cliffs, deep valleys, and choppy waters—and find ways through. Backed by the strength of 1.4 billion people, projects that once looked out of reach are now routine. When communities need safer homes, faster trains, or stronger bridges, the response is simple: build it—and build it well.

Sinical

4,716,824 views • 5 months ago

Today, we’re announcing that we’ve raised $115 million in funding, including a $100M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins. America has lost the ability to build, and we’re here to restore it. My co-founder, Noah McGuinness, and I left our jobs at SpaceX , where we worked on programs including Starship, Starshield, and Starlink, to build a company that will solve construction’s greatest challenges. Infrastructure is the foundation of civilization, and construction is the precursor to innovation. If America wants to build a brighter future for the next generation, we have to make it faster, cheaper, and safer to build. That’s where TerraFirma comes in. We’re a new type of company, a robotic construction company that builds the full technology stack needed to deliver an order-of-magnitude improvement in one of the world’s oldest, largest, most important, but least efficient industries. We are building technology that expands what’s possible in construction on Earth, and then we'll use that same technology to build megastructures and colonies on the Moon and Mars. We’ve made tremendous progress over the past year, growing the company more than 10x in the last 12 months. We are performing projects across the world. By the end of October 2026, we are on track to operate 3 of the top 3 largest robotic construction fleets in the world, each on a different continent, bringing unprecedented speed, scale, and efficiency to some of the world’s most complex critical infrastructure projects. This funding will allow us to step on the gas and scale our manufacturing, software, operations, and construction deployments, including work on massive commercial and government contracts. We’re building the future of construction right here in Austin, Texas, and scaling it globally. If you want to be part of the team changing the world, now and on Mars, join us. Our Series A was led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, BANNER VC, Saga Ventures, Trust Ventures, Definition, PEAK6, Magnetar Capital, and Ravelin Capital. Huge thanks to all of our angel investors, friends, and family who have helped and supported us throughout this journey. Apply here:
1:31

Today, we’re announcing that we’ve raised $115 million in funding, including a $100M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins. America has lost the ability to build, and we’re here to restore it. My co-founder, Noah McGuinness, and I left our jobs at SpaceX , where we worked on programs including Starship, Starshield, and Starlink, to build a company that will solve construction’s greatest challenges. Infrastructure is the foundation of civilization, and construction is the precursor to innovation. If America wants to build a brighter future for the next generation, we have to make it faster, cheaper, and safer to build. That’s where TerraFirma comes in. We’re a new type of company, a robotic construction company that builds the full technology stack needed to deliver an order-of-magnitude improvement in one of the world’s oldest, largest, most important, but least efficient industries. We are building technology that expands what’s possible in construction on Earth, and then we'll use that same technology to build megastructures and colonies on the Moon and Mars. We’ve made tremendous progress over the past year, growing the company more than 10x in the last 12 months. We are performing projects across the world. By the end of October 2026, we are on track to operate 3 of the top 3 largest robotic construction fleets in the world, each on a different continent, bringing unprecedented speed, scale, and efficiency to some of the world’s most complex critical infrastructure projects. This funding will allow us to step on the gas and scale our manufacturing, software, operations, and construction deployments, including work on massive commercial and government contracts. We’re building the future of construction right here in Austin, Texas, and scaling it globally. If you want to be part of the team changing the world, now and on Mars, join us. Our Series A was led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, BANNER VC, Saga Ventures, Trust Ventures, Definition, PEAK6, Magnetar Capital, and Ravelin Capital. Huge thanks to all of our angel investors, friends, and family who have helped and supported us throughout this journey. Apply here:

Noah Schochet

2,284,669 views • 1 month ago

When Boston Construction Starts Cracking The Cycle Is Already Late I’m in the Boston area and I keep hearing the same thing from people working directly in construction. Work is slowing, layoffs are beginning, and the pipeline ahead looks noticeably weaker. One person with a very good view of upcoming projects told me conditions are already becoming recessionary. That is anecdotal, but it lines up with the broader data. Boston’s office and lab markets remain heavily oversupplied, many completed buildings are struggling to find tenants, and the pipeline for new construction is deteriorating. Why Boston Matters Construction does not turn all at once. Permits, financing, leasing and project approvals usually weaken first. Employment responds later because contractors continue finishing projects approved years earlier and tend to hold onto skilled workers until they are certain the slowdown is lasting. That mattered during the last housing downturn. National construction employment peaked in 2006, well before total U.S. employment rolled over. The earliest cracks appeared in highly speculative housing markets such as Riverside, Phoenix, Las Vegas and parts of Florida. Boston reacted later. Local construction employment remained relatively resilient through 2007 and much of 2008 before falling much harder in 2009 and 2010. Unemployment followed a similar pattern, worsening materially after the broader national contraction was already underway. That makes Boston useful today because it has historically behaved more like a lagging confirmation market than an early warning market. The sequence is appearing again Several of the markets that weakened first during the last housing cycle are showing construction stress again. Riverside has suffered some of the largest construction job losses in the country. Miami has weakened. Tampa has been roughly flat. Phoenix has cooled considerably even where payrolls remain stable. Las Vegas has held up better partly because data center and infrastructure construction are offsetting housing weakness. The pattern is not identical to 2006, but the direction is increasingly difficult to ignore. Now weakness is reaching slower moving markets like Boston. Boston permitted only 432 housing units in Q1 2026, down from 549 one year earlier and 642 two years earlier. That is a 21.3% decline in one year and 32.7% over two years. A large share of those permits came from a single project, meaning the underlying pipeline was even thinner than the headline suggests. Permits are tomorrow’s construction employment. Workers can stay busy for months finishing old projects while new work quietly disappears. Once those backlogs are exhausted, layoffs can accelerate quickly. Where This Puts Us In The Cycle The last national construction employment trough came in 2011. That places 2026 roughly 15 years into the current expansion. The 18 year housing cycle is not a precise clock, but it places us deep into a mature cycle where financing becomes harder, speculative development slows, completed buildings struggle for tenants and labor eventually follows the shrinking pipeline. This does not automatically mean another 2008. But the sequence matters. The leading housing markets weakened first. Boston permits and commercial leasing are now deteriorating. People working directly in construction are reporting fewer projects and early layoffs. Official employment remains relatively resilient because employment is one of the last indicators to turn. Boston is moving from pipeline deterioration into labor market confirmation. If this continues, the next 6 to 18 months likely bring fewer projects, more subcontractor stress, broader layoffs and deeper commercial real estate weakness. When a backlog heavy market like Boston starts confirming what the early cycle markets have already been signaling, it suggests the economy is firmly late cycle and becoming increasingly vulnerable to a broader contraction.
0:24

When Boston Construction Starts Cracking The Cycle Is Already Late I’m in the Boston area and I keep hearing the same thing from people working directly in construction. Work is slowing, layoffs are beginning, and the pipeline ahead looks noticeably weaker. One person with a very good view of upcoming projects told me conditions are already becoming recessionary. That is anecdotal, but it lines up with the broader data. Boston’s office and lab markets remain heavily oversupplied, many completed buildings are struggling to find tenants, and the pipeline for new construction is deteriorating. Why Boston Matters Construction does not turn all at once. Permits, financing, leasing and project approvals usually weaken first. Employment responds later because contractors continue finishing projects approved years earlier and tend to hold onto skilled workers until they are certain the slowdown is lasting. That mattered during the last housing downturn. National construction employment peaked in 2006, well before total U.S. employment rolled over. The earliest cracks appeared in highly speculative housing markets such as Riverside, Phoenix, Las Vegas and parts of Florida. Boston reacted later. Local construction employment remained relatively resilient through 2007 and much of 2008 before falling much harder in 2009 and 2010. Unemployment followed a similar pattern, worsening materially after the broader national contraction was already underway. That makes Boston useful today because it has historically behaved more like a lagging confirmation market than an early warning market. The sequence is appearing again Several of the markets that weakened first during the last housing cycle are showing construction stress again. Riverside has suffered some of the largest construction job losses in the country. Miami has weakened. Tampa has been roughly flat. Phoenix has cooled considerably even where payrolls remain stable. Las Vegas has held up better partly because data center and infrastructure construction are offsetting housing weakness. The pattern is not identical to 2006, but the direction is increasingly difficult to ignore. Now weakness is reaching slower moving markets like Boston. Boston permitted only 432 housing units in Q1 2026, down from 549 one year earlier and 642 two years earlier. That is a 21.3% decline in one year and 32.7% over two years. A large share of those permits came from a single project, meaning the underlying pipeline was even thinner than the headline suggests. Permits are tomorrow’s construction employment. Workers can stay busy for months finishing old projects while new work quietly disappears. Once those backlogs are exhausted, layoffs can accelerate quickly. Where This Puts Us In The Cycle The last national construction employment trough came in 2011. That places 2026 roughly 15 years into the current expansion. The 18 year housing cycle is not a precise clock, but it places us deep into a mature cycle where financing becomes harder, speculative development slows, completed buildings struggle for tenants and labor eventually follows the shrinking pipeline. This does not automatically mean another 2008. But the sequence matters. The leading housing markets weakened first. Boston permits and commercial leasing are now deteriorating. People working directly in construction are reporting fewer projects and early layoffs. Official employment remains relatively resilient because employment is one of the last indicators to turn. Boston is moving from pipeline deterioration into labor market confirmation. If this continues, the next 6 to 18 months likely bring fewer projects, more subcontractor stress, broader layoffs and deeper commercial real estate weakness. When a backlog heavy market like Boston starts confirming what the early cycle markets have already been signaling, it suggests the economy is firmly late cycle and becoming increasingly vulnerable to a broader contraction.

EndGame Macro

46,641 views • 8 days ago

🇺🇸 TRUMP & LUTNICK EYE HUMANOID ROBOTICS REVOLUTION IN 2026: “AI THAT WALKS AND WORKS” Trump and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick are now turning their attention to the next seismic shift in tech: humanoid robotics, with a targeted push beginning in 2026. The move is part of a broader strategy to supercharge American AI leadership, but not just in software. The focus is shifting to physical, labor-replacing machines: humanoid robots that can think, move, and work in real-world environments. Think less ChatGPT, more “steel spine and servers flipping burgers, or building cars.” Why does it matter though? The U.S. is now staring down a future where whoever builds the best humanoid labor force wins the next economy, and we know China’s not waiting. Trump and Lutnick’s entrance into this space signals something serious: this isn’t just a Silicon Valley playground anymore. This is becoming a national priority. For a country dealing with a shrinking workforce, soaring labor costs, and foreign competitors pumping billions into robotics. It’s time to start taking humanoid robots more seriously and build them already. 2026 could be the year the Made in America label gets printed by robots. Source: Disclose.tv / Politico / AOL News
0:45

🇺🇸 TRUMP & LUTNICK EYE HUMANOID ROBOTICS REVOLUTION IN 2026: “AI THAT WALKS AND WORKS” Trump and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick are now turning their attention to the next seismic shift in tech: humanoid robotics, with a targeted push beginning in 2026. The move is part of a broader strategy to supercharge American AI leadership, but not just in software. The focus is shifting to physical, labor-replacing machines: humanoid robots that can think, move, and work in real-world environments. Think less ChatGPT, more “steel spine and servers flipping burgers, or building cars.” Why does it matter though? The U.S. is now staring down a future where whoever builds the best humanoid labor force wins the next economy, and we know China’s not waiting. Trump and Lutnick’s entrance into this space signals something serious: this isn’t just a Silicon Valley playground anymore. This is becoming a national priority. For a country dealing with a shrinking workforce, soaring labor costs, and foreign competitors pumping billions into robotics. It’s time to start taking humanoid robots more seriously and build them already. 2026 could be the year the Made in America label gets printed by robots. Source: Disclose.tv / Politico / AOL News

Mario Nawfal

64,898 views • 8 months ago

Another awesome robotics company raised funds in Europe. 🇪🇺 This time a company that is shipping robots that build! Monumental has raised $32M Series B led by Khosla Ventures, and its fleet of autonomous bricklaying robots has already built more than 100 real structures across Europe. Houses. A school. A community centre. A hotel. Canal walls. Founded by Salar al Khafaji al Khafaji and Sebastiaan Visser, the co-founders of data visualisation firm Silk, acquired by Palantir in 2016, this is a team that knows how to build and sell a company. The technology is serious: → Fleet of 100+ electric autonomous robots operating on live job sites today → Advanced sensors, computer vision and small cranes laying brick to millimetre precision → All driven by Atrium, their proprietary AI software platform → Nearly half of all homes built in the last three months alone, pace is compounding fast The business model is also worth taking a look at. Contractors don't buy the robots. They hire Monumental as an autonomous subcontractor and pay for finished wall. So in the end you only pay for the output. This is the same forward-deployed engineering model Palantir pioneered in software. Monumental brought it to physical robotics years before anyone else in the industry caught on. The backdrop makes this urgent. US construction is short 200,000-400,000 workers every month. Since 1945, US manufacturing productivity rose eightfold. Construction gained just 10%, and has actually declined since the 1960s. LET'S MAKE CONSTRUCTION BUSINESSES SEXY AGAIN! 🧱 ~~ ♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news →
0:28

Another awesome robotics company raised funds in Europe. 🇪🇺 This time a company that is shipping robots that build! Monumental has raised $32M Series B led by Khosla Ventures, and its fleet of autonomous bricklaying robots has already built more than 100 real structures across Europe. Houses. A school. A community centre. A hotel. Canal walls. Founded by Salar al Khafaji al Khafaji and Sebastiaan Visser, the co-founders of data visualisation firm Silk, acquired by Palantir in 2016, this is a team that knows how to build and sell a company. The technology is serious: → Fleet of 100+ electric autonomous robots operating on live job sites today → Advanced sensors, computer vision and small cranes laying brick to millimetre precision → All driven by Atrium, their proprietary AI software platform → Nearly half of all homes built in the last three months alone, pace is compounding fast The business model is also worth taking a look at. Contractors don't buy the robots. They hire Monumental as an autonomous subcontractor and pay for finished wall. So in the end you only pay for the output. This is the same forward-deployed engineering model Palantir pioneered in software. Monumental brought it to physical robotics years before anyone else in the industry caught on. The backdrop makes this urgent. US construction is short 200,000-400,000 workers every month. Since 1945, US manufacturing productivity rose eightfold. Construction gained just 10%, and has actually declined since the 1960s. LET'S MAKE CONSTRUCTION BUSINESSES SEXY AGAIN! 🧱 ~~ ♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news →

Lukas Ziegler

74,774 views • 1 month ago

I built an app in Softr for the HVAC industry to solve some crucial problems. The problem is that those in the HVAC industry and similar industries like construction, plumbing, and electrical do not have one source of truth where: 1. Their clients can request for thier services. 2. Clients can be onboarded after they make a payment. 3. They store the information and bio data of their technicians. 4. They assign tasks to their technicians. 5. Technicians can track onsite jobs with pictures in real time of when working. 6. Clients see the progress of their projects. 7. Invoices and quotations from paid clients can be tracked. 8. Technicians borrow assets from the company, and they can be tracked. 9. There is a database where every individual, from technicians to admin and clients, are all stored. 10. Login details from every individual are secured and they can only see things that are their business without seeing that of another person, be ita technician or a client. These and many more are what people in these industries face as a challenge. I came up with a solution that addresses all these problems. I built a workflow that also auto-populated the users table in the database with technicians and clients when the records are filled in the technician and client tables, respectively. There is also a workflow that sends an email to the admin when a client makes a request from the portal. Taking advantage of the database, workflow, and portal gave a full-blown application for the HVAC industry. If you are in the construction, plumbing, electrical, or HVAC industry and you need a similar build, reach out, and I will be more than happy to replicate this for you or something similar in Softr.
14:08

I built an app in Softr for the HVAC industry to solve some crucial problems. The problem is that those in the HVAC industry and similar industries like construction, plumbing, and electrical do not have one source of truth where: 1. Their clients can request for thier services. 2. Clients can be onboarded after they make a payment. 3. They store the information and bio data of their technicians. 4. They assign tasks to their technicians. 5. Technicians can track onsite jobs with pictures in real time of when working. 6. Clients see the progress of their projects. 7. Invoices and quotations from paid clients can be tracked. 8. Technicians borrow assets from the company, and they can be tracked. 9. There is a database where every individual, from technicians to admin and clients, are all stored. 10. Login details from every individual are secured and they can only see things that are their business without seeing that of another person, be ita technician or a client. These and many more are what people in these industries face as a challenge. I came up with a solution that addresses all these problems. I built a workflow that also auto-populated the users table in the database with technicians and clients when the records are filled in the technician and client tables, respectively. There is also a workflow that sends an email to the admin when a client makes a request from the portal. Taking advantage of the database, workflow, and portal gave a full-blown application for the HVAC industry. If you are in the construction, plumbing, electrical, or HVAC industry and you need a similar build, reach out, and I will be more than happy to replicate this for you or something similar in Softr.

Ada || Airtable, Zapier & Make.com

28,420 views • 8 months ago

Japan Just Built a HouseBot You Control Without Speaking and It Changes Everything! Donut Robotics has officially unveiled its first bipedal humanoid, Cinnamon 1, and instead of focusing on louder voices or bigger motors, the company went in the opposite direction. Silence. Cinnamon 1 introduces what Donut Robotics calls Silent Gesture Control, a system that allows the humanoid to be guided using simple hand and finger movements rather than spoken commands. This approach feels especially well suited for real world environments where traditional voice control falls apart. Busy factory floors. Construction sites filled with constant noise. Even quiet indoor settings where voice commands feel awkward or intrusive. It also opens the door for far more accessible human robot interaction, particularly for users with impairments. While the current Cinnamon 1 hardware is built on an OEM platform, the intelligence driving it is where Donut Robotics is placing its long term bet. The team is actively developing custom Vision Language Action AI that allows the robot to interpret what it sees, understand intent, and respond with physical action. The goal is not just smarter robots, but robots that feel more natural. Even more ambitious is the company’s plan for full domestic production. Donut Robotics has stated its intention to localize both manufacturing and AI development in Japan, reinforcing the country’s reputation for precision engineering and thoughtful robotics design. If timelines hold, Cinnamon 1 units are expected to begin deployment in factories and construction environments by the end of 2026. That puts this humanoid squarely in the category of near term reality rather than distant concept. The takeaway is simple but important. As humanoid robots move out of labs and into daily work environments, the winners may not be the loudest or flashiest machines. They may be the ones that understand us without a word being spoken.
0:31

Japan Just Built a HouseBot You Control Without Speaking and It Changes Everything! Donut Robotics has officially unveiled its first bipedal humanoid, Cinnamon 1, and instead of focusing on louder voices or bigger motors, the company went in the opposite direction. Silence. Cinnamon 1 introduces what Donut Robotics calls Silent Gesture Control, a system that allows the humanoid to be guided using simple hand and finger movements rather than spoken commands. This approach feels especially well suited for real world environments where traditional voice control falls apart. Busy factory floors. Construction sites filled with constant noise. Even quiet indoor settings where voice commands feel awkward or intrusive. It also opens the door for far more accessible human robot interaction, particularly for users with impairments. While the current Cinnamon 1 hardware is built on an OEM platform, the intelligence driving it is where Donut Robotics is placing its long term bet. The team is actively developing custom Vision Language Action AI that allows the robot to interpret what it sees, understand intent, and respond with physical action. The goal is not just smarter robots, but robots that feel more natural. Even more ambitious is the company’s plan for full domestic production. Donut Robotics has stated its intention to localize both manufacturing and AI development in Japan, reinforcing the country’s reputation for precision engineering and thoughtful robotics design. If timelines hold, Cinnamon 1 units are expected to begin deployment in factories and construction environments by the end of 2026. That puts this humanoid squarely in the category of near term reality rather than distant concept. The takeaway is simple but important. As humanoid robots move out of labs and into daily work environments, the winners may not be the loudest or flashiest machines. They may be the ones that understand us without a word being spoken.

The AI Robot Guy on X

257,928 views • 7 months ago

This is the video of the BBC News Hindi report on our startup in Bangalore We build extremely weather resilient, super strong, for protected, thermally efficient buildings with a raw material that is an environmental menace - the non recyclable single use plastic waste. The buildings are very cool. The speed of construction is phenomenal. Almost the entire work is done offsite -at our factory. The panels then are transported to site and installed. We construct 1,000 sqft homes within 10 days. We hand over a hotel room every 10 hours. At the #VTU -Visveswaraya Technological University in Hubballi, we built 8 rooms inside a large hall within 3 days. We do NOT USE WATER, SAND, CEMENT, BRICKS or STEEL in our walls both off site and in site. For multi storeyed buildings, one can build the structural framework with RCC or Steel framework. Ui walls can then be quickly mounted. It replaces the brick and mortar/ concrete block work. The Bison boards are fastened to the wall surfaces after installation - that provides the fire rating protection. The walls are built with shredded packets made of MLP. These MLPs are thermally insulating, does not absorb water, does not allow fungus (green and black moss) or termites and borers to settle on the Ui walls because it Offers NO nutrition to the parasites ( in a conventional construction riverbed sand and raw water used in construction have live microbial beings in them. The parasites stick to these walls to feed on it) The thermal insulation properties reduces energy bills of air conditioning buildings built with Ui walls up to 60%. Excellent material for shopping stores, showrooms, classrooms, homes,halls, office, Airbnb homes etc. You may contact us at: E Mail: paul@ui.ltd Ph: +91 9886339775
6:19

This is the video of the BBC News Hindi report on our startup in Bangalore We build extremely weather resilient, super strong, for protected, thermally efficient buildings with a raw material that is an environmental menace - the non recyclable single use plastic waste. The buildings are very cool. The speed of construction is phenomenal. Almost the entire work is done offsite -at our factory. The panels then are transported to site and installed. We construct 1,000 sqft homes within 10 days. We hand over a hotel room every 10 hours. At the #VTU -Visveswaraya Technological University in Hubballi, we built 8 rooms inside a large hall within 3 days. We do NOT USE WATER, SAND, CEMENT, BRICKS or STEEL in our walls both off site and in site. For multi storeyed buildings, one can build the structural framework with RCC or Steel framework. Ui walls can then be quickly mounted. It replaces the brick and mortar/ concrete block work. The Bison boards are fastened to the wall surfaces after installation - that provides the fire rating protection. The walls are built with shredded packets made of MLP. These MLPs are thermally insulating, does not absorb water, does not allow fungus (green and black moss) or termites and borers to settle on the Ui walls because it Offers NO nutrition to the parasites ( in a conventional construction riverbed sand and raw water used in construction have live microbial beings in them. The parasites stick to these walls to feed on it) The thermal insulation properties reduces energy bills of air conditioning buildings built with Ui walls up to 60%. Excellent material for shopping stores, showrooms, classrooms, homes,halls, office, Airbnb homes etc. You may contact us at: E Mail: [email protected] Ph: +91 9886339775

Paul Koshy

61,996 views • 1 year ago

🚨 BREAKING: Gravis Robotics has raised $200M in the largest Series A in construction robotics history, led by SoftBank! 🔥 Spun out of ETH Zürich in 2022. Three years later, $200M and SoftBank backing. The company is bringing autonomous AI to the most physically demanding machines on earth. Excavators. Heavy construction machinery. Equipment that hasn't fundamentally changed in 50 years. 🚜 Most physical AI operates in static worlds. Self-driving cars navigate around obstacles. Warehouse robots move objects across fixed floors. Everything stays where it is. An excavator does the exact opposite. It works by intentionally crashing into the environment, breaking apart soil with hidden rocks, reshaping the earth with every single pass of the bucket. The world changes with every action the machine takes. → Gravis AI doesn't navigate a static world, it actively takes the world apart and puts it back together → Models trained on billions of cubic yards of simulated earth, from soft clay to rock-filled soil → Generalises across different machine manufacturers — not locked to a single platform → Brings factory-floor precision to historically unpredictable civil jobsites The macro case is overwhelming. Energy networks, data centres, housing, transit, climate infrastructure, all of it requires construction at a scale the existing workforce cannot deliver. Construction is the primary bottleneck of the entire physical AI economy. The same AI boom driving demand for data centres is now funding the robots that will build them. Europe keeps producing world-class deep tech. 🇨🇭🇪🇺 To the team behind this, MASSIVE CONGRATS! Can't wait to publish what we have created onsite with Gravis team! 🫶🏼 ~~ ♻ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news →
0:58

🚨 BREAKING: Gravis Robotics has raised $200M in the largest Series A in construction robotics history, led by SoftBank! 🔥 Spun out of ETH Zürich in 2022. Three years later, $200M and SoftBank backing. The company is bringing autonomous AI to the most physically demanding machines on earth. Excavators. Heavy construction machinery. Equipment that hasn't fundamentally changed in 50 years. 🚜 Most physical AI operates in static worlds. Self-driving cars navigate around obstacles. Warehouse robots move objects across fixed floors. Everything stays where it is. An excavator does the exact opposite. It works by intentionally crashing into the environment, breaking apart soil with hidden rocks, reshaping the earth with every single pass of the bucket. The world changes with every action the machine takes. → Gravis AI doesn't navigate a static world, it actively takes the world apart and puts it back together → Models trained on billions of cubic yards of simulated earth, from soft clay to rock-filled soil → Generalises across different machine manufacturers — not locked to a single platform → Brings factory-floor precision to historically unpredictable civil jobsites The macro case is overwhelming. Energy networks, data centres, housing, transit, climate infrastructure, all of it requires construction at a scale the existing workforce cannot deliver. Construction is the primary bottleneck of the entire physical AI economy. The same AI boom driving demand for data centres is now funding the robots that will build them. Europe keeps producing world-class deep tech. 🇨🇭🇪🇺 To the team behind this, MASSIVE CONGRATS! Can't wait to publish what we have created onsite with Gravis team! 🫶🏼 ~~ ♻ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news →

Lukas Ziegler

71,024 views • 5 days ago

Alarming New Video Shows Robot Making Incredibly Realistic Facial Expressions | Victor Tangermann, The_Byte A robotics company in China has shown off a humanoid robotic head that can express emotions through extremely subtle movements of its facial features. A video that has gone viral on social media shows the face glancing around the room with a quizzical expression. Its eyes blink in an eerily lifelike way, selling the illusion surprisingly well. Hangzhou, China-based outfit AheadForm, which is behind the impressive demo, claims on its website to combine "self-supervised AI algorithms" and wide-range "bionic actuation" to "express authentic emotions and lifelike facial expressions." The demo goes to show how far human mimicry in the field of humanoid robotics has come, landing in the furthest reaches of the uncanny valley. "Well... 'Westworld' is closer than I thought," one Reddit user pondered in response to the video, referring to the hit HBO sci-fi show — and 1973 movie, and Michael Crichton novel — about a fictional amusement park populated by android "hosts." AheadForm says it's already developed a series of "ultra-lifelike" humanoid "elves," which can "perceive the world, communicate, learn, and interact intelligently with its surroundings" thanks to an "advanced AI learning algorithm." According to the company's founder, Hu Yuhang, the lines between human and robot are bound to continue to blur, eventually becoming barely distinguishable from each other. "Within ten years, we might interact with robots and feel like they are almost human; maybe in 20 years, they could walk normally and perform some tasks just like a human," he told the South China Morning Post last year. For now, the humanoid robot industry's main focus is productivity, rather than mimicking human personality expressions. A growing cohort of companies, including Tesla, is aiming to replace human labor with their offerings, teach them how to kickbox, and selling them as the ultimate household aid. However, as Yuhang suggests, such a future appears to still be a long way out. Not everybody's convinced that bipedal robots are the answer, either, with some arguing that purpose-built industrial robots will always be a better option. In the meantime, AheadForm aims to prepare us for an android-filled future by using AI to make human-robot interactions more "natural and engaging." But given their robots' disconcertingly probing eyes, that won't be an easy task.
1:21

Alarming New Video Shows Robot Making Incredibly Realistic Facial Expressions | Victor Tangermann, The_Byte A robotics company in China has shown off a humanoid robotic head that can express emotions through extremely subtle movements of its facial features. A video that has gone viral on social media shows the face glancing around the room with a quizzical expression. Its eyes blink in an eerily lifelike way, selling the illusion surprisingly well. Hangzhou, China-based outfit AheadForm, which is behind the impressive demo, claims on its website to combine "self-supervised AI algorithms" and wide-range "bionic actuation" to "express authentic emotions and lifelike facial expressions." The demo goes to show how far human mimicry in the field of humanoid robotics has come, landing in the furthest reaches of the uncanny valley. "Well... 'Westworld' is closer than I thought," one Reddit user pondered in response to the video, referring to the hit HBO sci-fi show — and 1973 movie, and Michael Crichton novel — about a fictional amusement park populated by android "hosts." AheadForm says it's already developed a series of "ultra-lifelike" humanoid "elves," which can "perceive the world, communicate, learn, and interact intelligently with its surroundings" thanks to an "advanced AI learning algorithm." According to the company's founder, Hu Yuhang, the lines between human and robot are bound to continue to blur, eventually becoming barely distinguishable from each other. "Within ten years, we might interact with robots and feel like they are almost human; maybe in 20 years, they could walk normally and perform some tasks just like a human," he told the South China Morning Post last year. For now, the humanoid robot industry's main focus is productivity, rather than mimicking human personality expressions. A growing cohort of companies, including Tesla, is aiming to replace human labor with their offerings, teach them how to kickbox, and selling them as the ultimate household aid. However, as Yuhang suggests, such a future appears to still be a long way out. Not everybody's convinced that bipedal robots are the answer, either, with some arguing that purpose-built industrial robots will always be a better option. In the meantime, AheadForm aims to prepare us for an android-filled future by using AI to make human-robot interactions more "natural and engaging." But given their robots' disconcertingly probing eyes, that won't be an easy task.

Owen Gregorian

105,829 views • 11 months ago

How will USA compete with China in robotics? stash and his team have a huge answer. Rip out their OS and put an American-made OS into the Chinese robots. Let's be honest. America is not going to catch up to Chinese robotics companies. The Chinese ecosystem is far more advanced than even in San Francisco. I've been visiting as many in the San Francisco ecosystem as I can and they all tell me this is true, with the exception of Tesla. So, the world is about to be flooded with Chinese robots of all types. Do business people anywhere, whether they are in Europe, India, America, or Asia, want to gift all their data to the Chinese? No. Dimensional has the answer, and here I visit with Stash and his team who already have an OS running on a variety of Chinese robotics. And they are building a new kind of OS (I call it a World Model, but it doesn't matter what you call it, we are headed toward an AGI that can make a robot get smarter and smarter over time and do more and more things autonomously over time) and here Stash goes into his work and gives you a very intimate look into one of San Francisco's most interesting robotics startups I've met.
49:11

How will USA compete with China in robotics? stash and his team have a huge answer. Rip out their OS and put an American-made OS into the Chinese robots. Let's be honest. America is not going to catch up to Chinese robotics companies. The Chinese ecosystem is far more advanced than even in San Francisco. I've been visiting as many in the San Francisco ecosystem as I can and they all tell me this is true, with the exception of Tesla. So, the world is about to be flooded with Chinese robots of all types. Do business people anywhere, whether they are in Europe, India, America, or Asia, want to gift all their data to the Chinese? No. Dimensional has the answer, and here I visit with Stash and his team who already have an OS running on a variety of Chinese robotics. And they are building a new kind of OS (I call it a World Model, but it doesn't matter what you call it, we are headed toward an AGI that can make a robot get smarter and smarter over time and do more and more things autonomously over time) and here Stash goes into his work and gives you a very intimate look into one of San Francisco's most interesting robotics startups I've met.

Robert Scoble

156,803 views • 9 months ago

🇨🇳📱 China Isn’t Talking About the AI Future: It’s Already Living It While Western media is still debating what AI wearables might look like, China is already living in that future, in shops, offices, classrooms, metros and even family homes. A new report shows just how far ahead China actually is: - 70+ Chinese companies have launched smart-glasses since Meta’s 2023 release. - Devices from Inmo, Rokid, Xiaomi, Alibaba are everywhere, some selling overseas, others powering China’s domestic AI ecosystems. - Features like paying for items by glancing at a QR code already exist in China. - China’s AI hardware sector is booming while others are still imagining prototypes. Kai-Fu Lee sums it up perfectly: “China is the nation of manufacturing… the next phase of competition will move to devices.” Exactly. The U.S. builds models. China builds the whole world those models have to run in. Why China Is Leading the AI Device Race? 1️⃣ The world’s strongest hardware ecosystem No country on Earth can design, prototype, manufacture and scale AI devices as fast as China. The ability to build millions of units in months gives China a massive advantage the U.S. simply doesn’t have. 2️⃣ Seamless digital integration Smart glasses plug directly into China’s existing infrastructure: - QR payments - WeChat / Alipay ecosystems - AI-enhanced navigation - Real-time translation and AR overlays The West has apps. China has an entire society built for AI adoption. 3️⃣ Relentless experimentation China is testing everything from: - enterprise AI recorders (DingTalk A1) - Plaud-style pocket transcribers - education-focused AI translators - even the quirky “Native Language Star” muzzle device for English practice Other countries theorise about “the next big thing.” China builds 20 versions of it by lunchtime. 4️⃣ The feedback loop advantage More devices, more usage, more data, faster improvement. China’s scale accelerates AI development in ways the U.S. cannot match. 5️⃣ AI wearables are already normal here Smart eyewear, AI notetakers, live translators, all in daily use. This isn’t sci-fi. This is Tuesday in Beijing. The Global Reality: For China, the AI device race is not hypothetical, it’s happening at street level. For many outside China? They can only imagine this kind of tech and often don’t believe it when they hear about it. Anyone living in China already sees the future everywhere, in convenience stores, on commuters, in classrooms and in the hands of office workers. Meanwhile, most of the world is still arguing about “what AI devices might eventually look like.” The Hard Truth: If the next “iPhone moment” of the AI age is going to come from anywhere, the smart money is on China, a country where hardware innovation, manufacturing power and real-world adoption all move at a speed the West simply can’t match.
1:05

🇨🇳📱 China Isn’t Talking About the AI Future: It’s Already Living It While Western media is still debating what AI wearables might look like, China is already living in that future, in shops, offices, classrooms, metros and even family homes. A new report shows just how far ahead China actually is: - 70+ Chinese companies have launched smart-glasses since Meta’s 2023 release. - Devices from Inmo, Rokid, Xiaomi, Alibaba are everywhere, some selling overseas, others powering China’s domestic AI ecosystems. - Features like paying for items by glancing at a QR code already exist in China. - China’s AI hardware sector is booming while others are still imagining prototypes. Kai-Fu Lee sums it up perfectly: “China is the nation of manufacturing… the next phase of competition will move to devices.” Exactly. The U.S. builds models. China builds the whole world those models have to run in. Why China Is Leading the AI Device Race? 1️⃣ The world’s strongest hardware ecosystem No country on Earth can design, prototype, manufacture and scale AI devices as fast as China. The ability to build millions of units in months gives China a massive advantage the U.S. simply doesn’t have. 2️⃣ Seamless digital integration Smart glasses plug directly into China’s existing infrastructure: - QR payments - WeChat / Alipay ecosystems - AI-enhanced navigation - Real-time translation and AR overlays The West has apps. China has an entire society built for AI adoption. 3️⃣ Relentless experimentation China is testing everything from: - enterprise AI recorders (DingTalk A1) - Plaud-style pocket transcribers - education-focused AI translators - even the quirky “Native Language Star” muzzle device for English practice Other countries theorise about “the next big thing.” China builds 20 versions of it by lunchtime. 4️⃣ The feedback loop advantage More devices, more usage, more data, faster improvement. China’s scale accelerates AI development in ways the U.S. cannot match. 5️⃣ AI wearables are already normal here Smart eyewear, AI notetakers, live translators, all in daily use. This isn’t sci-fi. This is Tuesday in Beijing. The Global Reality: For China, the AI device race is not hypothetical, it’s happening at street level. For many outside China? They can only imagine this kind of tech and often don’t believe it when they hear about it. Anyone living in China already sees the future everywhere, in convenience stores, on commuters, in classrooms and in the hands of office workers. Meanwhile, most of the world is still arguing about “what AI devices might eventually look like.” The Hard Truth: If the next “iPhone moment” of the AI age is going to come from anywhere, the smart money is on China, a country where hardware innovation, manufacturing power and real-world adoption all move at a speed the West simply can’t match.

James Wood 武杰士

17,430 views • 8 months ago

China unveils humanoid robot with lifelike skin and blinking eyes built for daily life | Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) help process and interpret complex data from human interactions. A Shanghai-based company has developed humanoid robots that appear as real as humans. The advanced bionic humanoid robot is integrated with self-supervised AI algorithms. Named Elf V1, the robot can perceive the world, communicate, learn, and interact intelligently with its surroundings. Developed by AheadForm Technology, the robot offers up to 30 degrees of freedom, powered by a precise control system and an advanced AI learning algorithm. Robot offers expressive facial features The robot offers expressive facial features, moving eyes, and synchronized speech. It can also convey emotions and understand human non-verbal cues, making interactions more natural and engaging. The robot has highly interactive capabilities and lifelike appearances. AheadForm expects that its robots could soon seamlessly integrate into daily life, providing assistance, companionship, and support across various industries. “We believe that by developing realistic and expressive robot heads, we can bridge the gap between humans and machines, fostering a new era of interactive and intelligent robotics,” said the company in a statement. Reports revealed that to avoid the “uncanny valley” effect and be able to interact with us, they are given lifelike skin and capabilities to read our emotions and respond appropriately using dynamic expression simulation and emotion generation tech. Bionic skin and high-precision control system The Elf V1 series of humanoids features 30 facial muscles animated by brushless micro-motors and managed by a high-precision control system. Paired with an ability to detect their users’ emotions with low latency and bionic skin, their facial expressions are nearly identical to those of humans, reported CGTN. The company claims it’s pioneering the development of realistic humanoid robots designed to revolutionize human-robot interaction. It’s enhancing sophisticated humanoid robot heads that can express emotions, perceive their environment, and interact seamlessly with humans. By combining cutting-edge AI and advanced robotics, AheadForm aims to bring life to machines and transform how humans engage with technology. AI models boost robots’ responsiveness Seamless integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) into the humanoid robots can help them process and interpret complex data from human interactions, enabling the robot to learn and adapt in real-time, achieving human-level understanding and responsiveness. AheadForm uses Brushless Motors that deliver ultra-quiet operation and high responsiveness, specifically designed for precision facial movements in humanoid robots. With its compact size, lightweight design, and energy efficiency, this motor is the ideal choice for next-generation robots that require precise, subtle facial control to create a truly human-like experience. Previously, the company unveiled the Lan Series that features realistic humanoid robots with soft skin and 10 degrees of freedom, offering a lifelike appearance and intuitive movements. This series is designed for cost-efficiency, for applications prioritizing mobility and manipulation.
1:06

China unveils humanoid robot with lifelike skin and blinking eyes built for daily life | Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) help process and interpret complex data from human interactions. A Shanghai-based company has developed humanoid robots that appear as real as humans. The advanced bionic humanoid robot is integrated with self-supervised AI algorithms. Named Elf V1, the robot can perceive the world, communicate, learn, and interact intelligently with its surroundings. Developed by AheadForm Technology, the robot offers up to 30 degrees of freedom, powered by a precise control system and an advanced AI learning algorithm. Robot offers expressive facial features The robot offers expressive facial features, moving eyes, and synchronized speech. It can also convey emotions and understand human non-verbal cues, making interactions more natural and engaging. The robot has highly interactive capabilities and lifelike appearances. AheadForm expects that its robots could soon seamlessly integrate into daily life, providing assistance, companionship, and support across various industries. “We believe that by developing realistic and expressive robot heads, we can bridge the gap between humans and machines, fostering a new era of interactive and intelligent robotics,” said the company in a statement. Reports revealed that to avoid the “uncanny valley” effect and be able to interact with us, they are given lifelike skin and capabilities to read our emotions and respond appropriately using dynamic expression simulation and emotion generation tech. Bionic skin and high-precision control system The Elf V1 series of humanoids features 30 facial muscles animated by brushless micro-motors and managed by a high-precision control system. Paired with an ability to detect their users’ emotions with low latency and bionic skin, their facial expressions are nearly identical to those of humans, reported CGTN. The company claims it’s pioneering the development of realistic humanoid robots designed to revolutionize human-robot interaction. It’s enhancing sophisticated humanoid robot heads that can express emotions, perceive their environment, and interact seamlessly with humans. By combining cutting-edge AI and advanced robotics, AheadForm aims to bring life to machines and transform how humans engage with technology. AI models boost robots’ responsiveness Seamless integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) into the humanoid robots can help them process and interpret complex data from human interactions, enabling the robot to learn and adapt in real-time, achieving human-level understanding and responsiveness. AheadForm uses Brushless Motors that deliver ultra-quiet operation and high responsiveness, specifically designed for precision facial movements in humanoid robots. With its compact size, lightweight design, and energy efficiency, this motor is the ideal choice for next-generation robots that require precise, subtle facial control to create a truly human-like experience. Previously, the company unveiled the Lan Series that features realistic humanoid robots with soft skin and 10 degrees of freedom, offering a lifelike appearance and intuitive movements. This series is designed for cost-efficiency, for applications prioritizing mobility and manipulation.

Owen Gregorian

179,005 views • 10 months ago

Elon Musk reveals why he’s building rockets, AI, and humanoid robots at the same time "The overall goal of my companies is to maximize the probability that civilization has a great future, and to expand consciousness beyond earth" "We need to assume that life and consciousness is extremely rare and it might only be us" "The image in my mind is of a tiny candle in a vast darkness, a tiny candle of consciousness that could easily go out" "That's why it's important to make life multiplanetary, such that if there's a natural or man-made disaster on earth, that consciousness continues" "That's the purpose of SpaceX" "With robotics and AI, this is really the path to abundance for all. The only way to solve global poverty and give everyone a very high standard of living is AI and robotics" "My prediction is there'll be more robots than people. Everyone on earth is going to have one and going to want one. We will make so many robots and AI that they will saturate all human needs. You won't be able to even think of something to ask the robot for" "Who wouldn't want a robot to watch over your kids, take care of your pet, or protect an elderly parent? There just aren't enough young people to take care of the old people" "Overall I'm very optimistic. We're headed for a future of amazing abundance. We are in the most interesting time in history"
6:38

Elon Musk reveals why he’s building rockets, AI, and humanoid robots at the same time "The overall goal of my companies is to maximize the probability that civilization has a great future, and to expand consciousness beyond earth" "We need to assume that life and consciousness is extremely rare and it might only be us" "The image in my mind is of a tiny candle in a vast darkness, a tiny candle of consciousness that could easily go out" "That's why it's important to make life multiplanetary, such that if there's a natural or man-made disaster on earth, that consciousness continues" "That's the purpose of SpaceX" "With robotics and AI, this is really the path to abundance for all. The only way to solve global poverty and give everyone a very high standard of living is AI and robotics" "My prediction is there'll be more robots than people. Everyone on earth is going to have one and going to want one. We will make so many robots and AI that they will saturate all human needs. You won't be able to even think of something to ask the robot for" "Who wouldn't want a robot to watch over your kids, take care of your pet, or protect an elderly parent? There just aren't enough young people to take care of the old people" "Overall I'm very optimistic. We're headed for a future of amazing abundance. We are in the most interesting time in history"

Jaynit

618,499 views • 3 months ago

Wynton Hall says that Silicon Valley billionaires believe they’re creating an “actual deity” in the race to build AI. Not only that, but they’re convinced that a transhumanist future where humans integrate with machines is “not only inevitable, but preferable.” This conversation will shock you: “Gary Tann, who’s the billionaire, Christian, head of Y Combinator… said, there are so many people in Silicon Valley ready to make AGI into an actual deity.” “He’s not saying that’s a good thing.” “He’s a person of faith, a Christian.” “But what he’s saying is there is this belief that humans have had their run, and we’re just on the way of evolution.” “And we’ve got to evolve into a transhuman and the… singularity, as it’s known, this point at which human and machine will fuse, is not only inevitable, but preferable.” “Here’s where it’ll get very interesting and very, very scary.” “If you look at things like brain chips and augmenting people with AI … we already have our phone.” “If you were on a trip with your family or your friends, and you left your phone at home… you would turn your car around.” “The next step is, now we have the AI glasses.” “Now it’s a little closer.” “And we already have, with Neuralink, the chip.” “There will be a point in the future… where parents are gonna have to decide, do I chip my child so they’re competitive in the workplace and school or are they a natural human who has no way to cognitively zoom through billions of tokens of information?” “The back door is always there, and who’s on the other side of that control?” Wynton Hall
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Wynton Hall says that Silicon Valley billionaires believe they’re creating an “actual deity” in the race to build AI. Not only that, but they’re convinced that a transhumanist future where humans integrate with machines is “not only inevitable, but preferable.” This conversation will shock you: “Gary Tann, who’s the billionaire, Christian, head of Y Combinator… said, there are so many people in Silicon Valley ready to make AGI into an actual deity.” “He’s not saying that’s a good thing.” “He’s a person of faith, a Christian.” “But what he’s saying is there is this belief that humans have had their run, and we’re just on the way of evolution.” “And we’ve got to evolve into a transhuman and the… singularity, as it’s known, this point at which human and machine will fuse, is not only inevitable, but preferable.” “Here’s where it’ll get very interesting and very, very scary.” “If you look at things like brain chips and augmenting people with AI … we already have our phone.” “If you were on a trip with your family or your friends, and you left your phone at home… you would turn your car around.” “The next step is, now we have the AI glasses.” “Now it’s a little closer.” “And we already have, with Neuralink, the chip.” “There will be a point in the future… where parents are gonna have to decide, do I chip my child so they’re competitive in the workplace and school or are they a natural human who has no way to cognitively zoom through billions of tokens of information?” “The back door is always there, and who’s on the other side of that control?” Wynton Hall

Jan Jekielek

13,693 views • 4 months ago