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| ▲ Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy |
[Global Economic Times] Amid fierce competition among countries to dominate the humanoid market, our government is also taking steps to fully support domestic robot companies.
During a visit to A Robot Co., Ltd. on October 16, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Park Seong-taek announced the goal of raising humanoid technology competitiveness to the highest global level by 2027 through A/X leading projects in the robotics field.
At the '1st National Artificial Intelligence Committee' chaired by the President held on September 26th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced plans to promote the 'Industrial A/X Leading Project' to apply AI to major industries for AI Transformation (AX) in industry. has been reported. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to promote 300 leading projects by 2027 to improve the competitiveness of each industry, including manufacturing, robots, design, and distribution, and to secure growth engines for new industries such as AI and AI semiconductors. Among the 300 projects, the AI autonomous manufacturing field will begin this month.
Recently, global investment related to humanoids is booming due to innovations in AI technologies such as ChatGPT. In January 2024, Goldman Sachs predicted the global humanoid market size to be $38 billion in 2035, which is a six-fold increase in just over a year (November 2022, 2035 market size forecast of $6 billion). Recently, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that the era of physical AI will follow the era of generative AI, and robots such as humanoids will take center stage. Tesla's Elon Musk said that Tesla is now an AI and robot company and is making a large investment in its humanoid model, Optimus, with the goal of mass production within a few years.
The reason the whole world is paying attention to humanoids is because of their impact. Humanoids are expected to bring fundamental changes to our industry, economy, and even the quality of individual life in that they can think and act like humans.
In particular, the advanced cognitive and judgment abilities of humanoids are expected to dramatically improve productivity, safety, and quality in industrial sites. Some predict that the era of one robot per household will soon begin, with humanoids serving as personal assistants. Additionally, in the process of developing humanoids, the potential for development of cutting-edge industries and technologies such as AI, AI semiconductors, components such as sensors and motors, and batteries is also endless.
On this day, Vice Minister Park Sung-taek said, “Humanoid will be a key project in the great transformation of industrial AI,” and said, “The United States and China are leading the way with large-scale preemptive investments, but we also have sufficient potential in terms of human resources and technology.”
Next, Vice Minister Park said, “The Humanoid A/X project will become a focal point that gathers the capabilities of AI, robots, AI semiconductors, and parts companies,” adding, “We will begin the project in the first half of next year with the goal of developing a global top-level humanoid by 2027.” “I will do it,” he said.
Vice Minister Park said, “We are also considering designating robots as a high-tech strategic industry following semiconductors and batteries, and if confirmed later through expert deliberation, the development of robot industries such as humanoids will gain further momentum.”
Meanwhile, A Robot Co., Ltd., a humanoid company visited by Vice Minister Park, unveiled the Alice 4th generation model for the first time on this day. A Robot Co., Ltd. is Korea's leading humanoid company that has won the international humanoid soccer competition 'Robo Cup' for three consecutive years, and is developing with the goal of commercializing humanoids that can be used in industrial sites. On this day, ‘Alice’, a humanoid capable of voice recognition, object judgment, and hand manipulation based on AI, demonstrated carrying and moving various objects instructed by a person’s voice.
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