A Russian robotics company has recently made headlines for offering $200,000（about 1,274,060 yuan) for the right to use one individual’s face and voice forever in robot development. It’s expected that their robots will look and sound human like. However, they may not be able to move like humans.

“Robots are klutzes (笨手笨脚的人),”   US AI engineer Ken Goldberg told the website Science News for Students.

Robotic scientists say that one-year-old human babies have better movement skills than robots do. Let’s take a look at some tasks that are easy for you but tough for robots.

Pick things up

Picking things up is not easy. If we drop our pencil on the floor, our brains work hard. First, we must find the pencil and look at its distance. Then we move our hands to it. A robot cannot always move it’s “hand” to the right place. Calculating (计算) the distance is not easy. Then, when we touch the pencil, it might roll a little bit. Robots cannot easily understand this either. So, if you drop a pencil on the floor, a robot will probably roll it around the room.

Get around spaces

If someone drops you in a building you’ve never been to, you might feel a bit lost. But you can look around, find a door and get out quickly. You will not get stuck in a corner. But a robot will look everywhere for a door, even on ceilings and floors. This is because it’s hard for them to understand spaces, especially large, blank things such as walls or ceilings. Scientists need to train them with lots of data to learn this.

Understand the world made by people

“Common sense” is what we don’t need to think or talk about. Because of common sense, we do not look for doors on the ceiling. We pick up a coffee cup by its handle. We feel whether it has coffee inside, and whether it is hot.

But robots may turn the cup upside down or hold the hot part of the cup, damaging itself. Scientists have tried teaching robots common-sense rules. But even huge databases don’t help much. There are just too many rules – and too many exceptions (例外). Maybe they just need more time to learn.

Nao, the first robot able to show feelings, has been created by a European research team. When Nao is sad, he lowers his head and looks down. When he’s happy, he raises his arms for a hug. Nothing is out of the ordinary, except that Nao is a robot.

“We’re modeling the first years of life,” says Lola Canamero, a computer scientist at the University of Hertforshire. “The feelings are shown through physical gestures and body movements rather than facial or verbal(言语的) expressions.”

In the future, says the scientist, robots are likely to act as companions, provide support for old people, and help people shop online. In such uses, the display of feeling will be important in making the interactions(交往) more natural and comfortable.

Nao has been programmed to copy the emotional skills of a one-year-old child. It can memorize faces, and knows the basic rules of good and bad. Based on these it can decide how to react to what is going on. The actions going with each feeling are pre-programmed, but Nao decides for itself when to display them.

Nao is also programmed to have different personalities. A more independent robot is less likely to call for help when exploring a room, while a more fearful robot will show distress if it finds something in the room that may be harmful.

Canamero’s team will take its emotional programming forward into medical applications. Part of the project will look at ways to use robots in hospitals to support the roles of doctors, nurses and parents. Children might find that a small, friendly-looking robot that can understand their emotional states makes them less anxious. “We want to explore different roles—the robots will help the children to understand their treatment and explain what they have to do. We want to help the children to control their anxiety.” she says.

To everyone’s surprise, Huawei launched the newest handset, the Mate 60 Pro, equipped with a 5G application processor and satellite phone function, without any prior announcement. This left many Chinese feeling amazed.

With the international situation becoming increasingly challenging, Huawei was encountering significant financial issues. For instance, its revenue (收入) in 2021 declined nearly 30 percent, according to its annual report. For a company like Huawei, this was a major shock and could pose a persistent problem that needed immediate attention. Therefore, it was crucial for Huawei to have its own core technology, especially when it came to chips. Developing chips is a lengthy, demanding, and labor-intensive (劳动密集型的) process, but this didn’t stop Huawei. Instead of purchasing or leasing products from other countries, Huawei decided to invest heavily in research and development.

Huawei’s difficulties are similar to those faced by modern China in its early days. During that time, China lacked advanced technology. Despite this, China managed to develop its own atomic bombs, aircraft carriers, satellites, and fighter jets starting from zero. These advancements guided the country to prosperity and power.

As a storm of trouble approached, Huawei chose to confront it rather than give up. Huawei’s attitude of struggling and pushing ahead is the best presentation of the Chinese national spirit and serves as an example for others to follow. In the face of life’s unknown challenges, the key is to look ahead and not give in.