Author: gqSbgCfmna

TOKYO – A pair of swivelling, human-like robotic arms, built for physical artificial intelligence research, mirror the motions of an operator in a VR headset twirling his hands like a magician.

With enough practice, arms like these can complete everyday tasks alone, says Tokyo company Enactic, which is developing humanoid robots to wash dishes and do laundry in short-staffed Japanese care homes.

Welcome to the future of AI as it starts to infiltrate the material world in the form of smart robots, self-driving cars and other autonomous machines.

“The next wave of AI is physical AI,” Jensen Huang, head of US chip giant Nvidia, said last year.

That’s “AI that understands the laws of physics, AI that can work among us” and understands “how to perceive the world”, Huang added.

Tech firms are pouring massive sums into physical AI, and Morgan Stanley predicts the world could have more than a billion humanoid robots by 2050.

The buzz is only heightened by videos showing advanced androids, often Chinese-made, dancing to Taylor Swift or pulling heavy objects with ease.

Beyond the promise of sci-fi robot butlers, the race has sparked concern over job losses, privacy and how long these innovations will take to actually be useful.

Hiro Yamamoto is the 24-year-old CEO of Enactic, whose OpenArm physical AI training devices are used by Nvidia and at top universities such as Stanford.

He plans to begin deploying new robots, currently under development, from next summer to “live alongside people in environments that are very chaotic, and where conditions are always changing” like care homes.

“So it has to be safe,” with a soft exterior that won’t injure anyone, Yamamoto said.

– ‘Any human role’ –

In the Chinese city of Guangzhou, a female figure with a glowing oval-shaped visor for a face, clad in white woven fabric like a fencing athlete, walked slowly across a stage last week to cheers and whispers.

It was the latest humanoid robot to be unveiled by Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng, which is also pushing into physical AI.

Nimble machines made by US companies, such as Boston Dynamics’ dog-like robots, have grabbed headlines over the years.

But government support and strong domestic supply chains are helping Chinese rivals, also including Unitree Robotics and EngineAI, race ahead.

“I haven’t given much thought to how many robots we will sell annually in 10 years’ time, but I think it would be more than cars,” XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng told reporters.

XPeng’s robots walk and even dance autonomously — but how well they handle objects, a more complicated feat, has not been widely demonstrated.

Their dexterous fingers and flexible skin are unlikely to replace workers on China’s factory floors soon, He said.

The cost of one robot hand, which needs to be replaced regularly for heavy-duty work, could pay a Chinese worker’s salary for years.

But with enough data and training, AI humanoid robots could one day perform “almost any human role”, from nanny to home chef or gardener, XPeng co-president Brian Gu told AFP.

– On-the-job training –

Text-based AI tools like ChatGPT are trained on huge volumes of words, but physical AI models must also grapple with vision and the spatial relationship between objects.

For now, remotely operating AI robots to teach them how to do something like picking up a cup “is by far the most reliable way to collect data”, Yamamoto said.

Just 30 to 50 demonstrations of each task are needed to fine-tune “vision-language-action” AI models, he added.

Enactic has approached several dozen care facilities in Japan to propose that its teleoperated robots take over menial tasks, so qualified care workers have more time to look after elderly residents.

This on-the-job experience will train physical AI models so the robots can act autonomously in future, Yamamoto said.

US-Norwegian startup 1X is taking a similar approach for its humanoid home helper NEO, which it will deliver to American homes from next year.

NEO costs $20,000 to buy, but so far its performance is shaky, with one video in US media showing the robot struggling to close a dishwasher door, even when teleoperated.

– Physical limits –

In another embarrassing moment, a Russian humanoid robot, said to be the country’s first, staggered then fell flat on its face as it made its debut on stage earlier this week.

There is currently a “big gap” between robots’ AI systems and their physical abilities, which lag behind, said Sara Adela Abad Guaman, assistant professor in robotics at University College London.

“Nature has shown us that in order to adapt to the environment, you need to have the right body,” Abad told AFP, giving the example of a mountain goat that stumbles on ice.

Nevertheless, big deals are being struck, even as booming investment in artificial intelligence feeds fears of a stock market bubble.

Japan’s SoftBank recently called physical AI its “next frontier” as it said it was buying industrial robot maker ABB Robotics for $5.4 billion.

Automation raises questions about the future of human labour, but Abad is not too worried.

At the end of the day, “our sense of touch is incomparable,” she said.

When Thailand cut power supply to Myanmar across its western border this year, it intended to curb online scam centres linked to regional networks trafficking hundreds of thousands of people.

However, the move also hit the wider community, pushing hospitals and some offices to install solar panels, said Zaw, a rescue worker in Myawaddy town just across the Thai border. Homes, too, made the switch.

“Three out of four people now rely on solar panels, with businesses using multiple panels,” said Zaw, who did not want to disclose his full name, fearing retribution.

Myanmar’s electricity supply has deteriorated since the 2021 military coup and ensuing civil war, exposing millions to chronic blackouts, with a cash-strapped government hit by Western sanctions unable to maintain power infrastructure.

The World Bank estimated the country’s operating power capacity plunged to 2015 levels in 2024, describing electricity supply in conflict-affected areas as “catastrophic”.

Chinese firms have helped fill the gap, supplying cheap solar panels.

Natural gas shortage saps generation

Light intensity data – a proxy for economic activity and electricity access – analysed by the United Nations revealed an average 8% annual decline after the 2021 coup.

The drop is largely due to a shortage of natural gas, Myanmar’s main generation fuel, as domestic production has declined and the government has halted imports of liquefied natural gas due to a foreign exchange shortage, the World Bank said in a June 2024 report.

Former US President Joe Biden’s administration froze about $1 billion of Myanmar assets and imposed sanctions, some of which have been eased by the Trump administration. Western sanctions have restricted access to technical support, spare parts, and expertise to maintain infrastructure, such as transmission lines damaged in the civil war.

Myanmar’s junta said earlier this year generation capacity had plunged by nearly half from pre-2021 levels. Data on the Ministry of Electric Power’s website shows output has not changed much since 2018.

The Information Ministry did not respond to detailed questions on power supply and demand, and the junta’s spokesperson did not answer calls from Reuters.

Cheap solar panels from China

To combat the power crisis, households and businesses are embracing solar, according to interviews with a dozen residents, business owners and panel and battery sellers across the Southeast Asian country.

“Unlike most of Asia, where we’re seeing corporate demand drive solar growth, energy security concerns and fuel shortages are the key drivers in Myanmar,” said Linda Zeng, renewables analyst at Fitch Solutions unit BMI.

Solar panel imports from China, Myanmar’s largest supplier, more than doubled in the nine months through September to about $100 million, according to Chinese customs data. Shipments have risen over eightfold from pre-pandemic levels, the data showed.

Shops, restaurants, and workshops seeking reliable power for lighting, refrigeration and electronic payments, as well as water kiosks, clinics, and schools increasingly use small solar systems, said an official from an international development agency working in Myanmar.

“I have about 10 refrigerators. The electricity here is not regular, so I had to use solar panels,” said an ice cream seller from the ancient city of Mawlamyine, who declined to be named due to fear of retribution.

Household solar installations have surged from a few hundred in 2019 to roughly 300,000 in 2025, as users switch from diesel generators to solar panels with storage, said Ken Pyi Wa Tun, chairman of Parami Energy, which sells solar panels and diesel generators in Myanmar.

“A household solar-plus-battery-plus-inverter can be acquired for under $1,000 and power essentials, run for four to five hours and power 2 AC units,” Ken Pyi Wa Tun said.

While that is too expensive for most homes, it is cheaper than the roughly $7,000 for a small diesel generator, plus fuel costs of $50 to $100 per week, he said, predicting solar could potentially power 2 million to 2.5 million Myanmar households.

It’s not about climate goals

Myanmar’s surging solar imports mirror a trend of increased solar adoption to escape erratic power supply in lower- and low-middle income countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.

They are among the fastest-growing markets for panel exports from China, the world’s dominant solar manufacturer, data from energy think-tank Ember showed.

“If the grid is not reliable or the prices too high, then people will do it themselves. And now they can, thanks to solar,” said Richard Black, director of policy and strategy at Ember.

Solar adoption, driven by necessity rather than policy, could disrupt traditional utility models, challenge forecasts about fossil fuel demand and complicate grid management, analysts say.

In Pakistan, a surge in affluent residents ditching the country’s costly grid power by installing solar panels has forced utilities to raise prices even further for remaining customers.

Diesel imports by Myanmar declined 11% in the first 10 months of 2025, data from analytics firm Kpler showed, while solar panel purchases grew.

“It is not like we are using them for clean energy or for some environmental reasons. We are a country with civil war. We are just using them out of necessity,” said a resident in the Bago region.