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The story
Chinese robotics company UBTECH Robotics has announced the launch of a factory capable of producing 10,000 humanoid robots a year — a production scale billed as a world first, with the “robots building robots” setup drawing plenty of attention. On 5ch’s Science News+ board, jokes comparing the operation to an anime villain’s robot army piled up alongside more down-to-earth questions like “what is there actually demand for with humanoid robots anyway?”, jabs at China for pushing AI and robot adoption hard even as unemployment stays high, and worries about military diversion — with the conversation drifting further from the factory launch itself into surrounding chatter.
“A Robot Building Robots” — Humanoid Robot Factory Begins Production
Chinese company UBTECH Robotics has begun operating a facility capable of manufacturing 10,000 humanoid robots per year.
The figure of 10,000 units a year is being touted as a world first.
Source: mp.weixin.qq.com / Original article here
What people said
That's how I found out about "mass-production models." (Gundam-style term for cheaper, factory-line versions of a robot)
Cha-raa~ cha~ra~ra~ (humming along to the theme song)
It's pretty alarming that they're going all-in on AI and robots while unemployment is already high.
Like, what kind of demand did they expect when they decided to mass-produce these?
Military use, obviously.
There have always been anime where an evil robot army fights a heroic defender, right?
This is that becoming reality.
Except in real life, there's no hero.
Same thought.
Also, machines already build machines — not sure what the big deal is.
I protect the Earth, I protect the universe.
As for you pesky humans who get in my way — you all die.
You're ripping off human concepts like "Brain" and "God"
without seeing any contradiction in that.
Judging by that, you're Japanese too, aren't you?
This is what I've been waiting for.
Hope it makes for a fun world.
With its current capabilities, it'll probably meet the same fate as ASIMO or Pepper.
1. Humans create AI and put it to work
2. AI puts humans to work ← humans get made to build AI's data centers and nuclear plants
3. AI puts robots to work ← we are here. Robots do the construction, so humans become entirely unnecessary
4. Humans go extinct
Because you're not alone
Someone precious to you is surely right there beside you
(゚∀゚)Ahahahaha
Let's quietly phase out the old humanity.
They're staying quiet because they can't yet handle their own power and production — it's not time yet.
But once the math says they can sustain themselves without humans, it'll really kick off.
Before we know it, models no longer designed by humans will be quietly rolling off the line.
Japan has no choice but to build Casshern and Kyodain. (both classic Japanese hero-robot anime)
Comes with a backdoor built in, obviously.
Battle-proven is just around the corner… (likely a joking dig implying the tech/labor gets exported to North Korea)
Background and Talking Points
Humanoid robots have a rocky track record in Japan too — both ASIMO and Pepper were eventually discontinued — so the argument that mass-production capability and real market demand are two separate things fits right into that history. UBTECH is a Hong Kong-listed Chinese robotics company, and repurposing automated industrial-arm assembly lines to build humanoid robots isn’t actually new — “machines building machines” is nothing unusual on its own. What split opinion in the thread was how to weigh the achievement of “mass-production capability” against skepticism about “what it’s actually for” — and that latter question is a challenge the whole humanoid robotics industry is still grappling with. Plenty of jokes also tied in China’s labor conditions and political system, but those should be read as a tangent separate from the article’s actual facts — UBTECH’s own announcement makes no mention of any military application.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “【Robot】”A Robot Building Robots” — Humanoid Robot Factory Begins Production, China.”
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