On April 16, a delegation of 86 journalists from 52 media outlets across China, the United States, Russia, Britain, Brazil and Japan toured robotics and artificial intelligence firms in Shenzhen.
From smart glasses to humanoid robots, the delegation saw firsthand how the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is translating AI-driven manufacturing into tangible products.
Dr. Frederick De Jacma, international director of Gaia Palaka AI Technology, has lived in China for 23 years. By profession a plastic surgeon, he has become an everyday user of the very technologies his company develops. He demonstrated a pair of AI-powered glasses that support real-time translation in 137 languages.
"If you speak Chinese, it translates to English for me. I speak English, it translates back to you," he explained. The device also records conversations and syncs with a smartphone.
De Jacma acknowledged that AI translation software may be slightly more advanced in the United States. "But the manufacturing in China is just amazing," he said. "The quality, the speed, the durability—it can't be reproduced anywhere else."
At UBTECH, a leading humanoid robotics firm, CBO Michael Tam laid out the company's rapid expansion. Last year, UBTECH delivered 1,000 mass-produced units; this year, it aims to increase production capacity to 10,000. Ninety percent of its market, Tam said, is focused on China's industrial intelligence sector.
He attributed the company's edge to four factors: a complete supply chain, talent that bridges hardware and software, open-source large language models that boost efficiency, and a vast domestic market that allows more investment in early-stage innovation and trial applications.
Nelson Pancini De Sa, a journalist from Brazil's UOL Group, summed up the consensus among many foreign reporters. "From what I've heard today, the supply chain is everything," he said. "If you want to produce robots that are financially viable, with a good price, you have to be in China—because this is where you can find everything to build a robot."
He noted that Shenzhen's technological landscape evolves at a dizzying pace. "A few months ago, I was here looking for smartphones and AI. Now it's all about robots. Shenzhen is one of the leaders in this regard."
Reporter: Guo Zedong
Photo, cover & video: Pan Jiajun
