Xiaomi Expands into Embodied Intelligence: Investing in Xiaoyu Intelligent Manufacturing with Dual-Track Approach

AIbase基地

Published inAI News · 4 min read · Jul 19, 2024

180

As the global tide of artificial intelligence sweeps across the world, Xiaomi Group is quietly positioning itself in the embodied intelligence business, aiming to seize the initiative in the next wave of AI. According to 36Kr, Xiaomi has partnered with robotics expert Wang Tianmiao to invest in an embodied intelligence tech company named "Xiaoyu Intelligence Manufacturing". This marks Xiaomi's first external investment in the embodied intelligence sector.

"Xiaoyu Intelligence Manufacturing" was established in February 2023 and has already completed several hundred million yuan in seed funding. Its core founding team consists of former Xiaomi executives: Founder Qiao Zhongliang was the head of MIUI R&D, and co-founder Wang Wenlin served as the general manager of Xiaomi's software system platform department. Other team members come from renowned tech companies such as Huawei, ByteDance, and Microsoft.

The core concept of "Xiaoyu Intelligence Manufacturing" is the "one brain, multiple forms" embodied intelligent robot, which uses a highly generalized intelligent entity to control multiple robots of different forms in various scenarios. The company has already secured an order for a hundred welding robots from a leading heavy industrial enterprise and has started joint operations for the first batch of products.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is also actively expanding internally. In 2021, Xiaomi established a robotics laboratory and launched the full-size humanoid bionic robot CyberOne and the bionic quadruped robot Cyberdog. In 2023, Xiaomi spun off this business to form "Beijing Xiaomi Robot Technology Co., Ltd." and received strategic investment from Yizhuang Guotou.

Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi, stated that all the technology behind CyberOne is self-developed by Xiaomi, with significant investment. In the future, CyberOne will "intern" on the manufacturing lines of Xiaomi's car factory, exploring the application of humanoid robots in industrial scenarios.

By adopting both internal incubation and external investment strategies, Xiaomi is accelerating its layout in the embodied intelligence field. This "two-pronged approach" provides Xiaomi with more possibilities and positions it well to seize the initiative in the next wave of AI. Xiaomi's moves are worth continuous attention and could bring new changes and opportunities to the entire industry.

AI Development Has Not Slowed Down! Anthropic Co-Founder: Progress in Artificial Intelligence Will Be 'More Significant' in 2025

Has the development of artificial intelligence reached a bottleneck? Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark recently stated in a newsletter that this is not the case. He believes that the recent release of OpenAI's o3 model indicates that AI development is not slowing down, but may in fact be accelerating. Clark refuted claims that AI development is reaching its limits in his newsletter called 'Import AI.' He wrote, 'Anyone telling you that progress is slowing down or that expansion is hitting a bottleneck is wrong.'

Hawaii Public Schools Pilot AI Project! Students Create Chatbots to Solve Campus Challenges

Hawaii public schools recently piloted an artificial intelligence project, the results of which left a deep impression on education leaders and even moved them. Six teams of 80 students from elementary, middle, and high schools across the islands were tasked with identifying challenges faced by their peers and creating an AI program or "chatbot" to help find solutions. The project was co-created by Ian Kitajima, president of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. Hawaii Public Radio (HPR) interviewed Kitajima to learn more.

AI Can Now Smell Whiskey! Successfully Identifies Differences Between American and Scotch Whiskeys

Recently, a research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Germany developed an artificial intelligence molecular scent prediction algorithm called OWSum, which successfully distinguishes American whiskey from Scotch whiskey, surpassing human experts in accuracy. The team trained this AI tool using flavor descriptions and chemical data of whiskey to explore its potential in whiskey identification. Image source note: The image was generated by AI, and the image licensing provider Midjourney was involved in the study, where researchers selected 16 samples.

Thailand's Ministry of Industry Introduces AI Regulation! Able to Detect 100,000 Counterfeit Products Sold Online Daily

Thailand's Ministry of Industry recently announced the introduction of an artificial intelligence (AI) system to enhance the regulation of counterfeit products sold on online platforms. Pongpol Yodmuangcharoen, the secretary of the ministry's industrial reform and innovation committee, stated on Wednesday that the proposal was discussed during the committee's meeting on December 20. The committee learned during its second meeting on December 20 that a study indicated the ministry's AI system could monitor and detect 100,000 items daily.