How 'embodied AI' is reshaping daily life in China

Xi Jinping sees artificial intelligence as key to restoring confidence in the private sector and upgrading the nation’s military strength

- By Amy Hawkins

On a misty Saturday afternoon in Shenzhen’s Central Park, a gaggle of teenage girls are sheltering from the drizzle under a concrete canopy. With their bags of crisps piled high, they crowd around a couple of smartphones to sing along to Mandopop ballads.

The sound of their laughter rings out across the surrounding lawn - until it is pierced by a mechanical buzzing sound. Someone has ordered dinner.

A few metres away is an “airdrop cabinet”, one of more than 40 in Shenzhen that is operated by Meituan, China’s biggest food delivery platform.

Hungry park-goers can order anything from rice noodles to Subway sandwiches to bubble tea.

A drone, loaded up with goods from a shopping mall less than 3km away, flies into view, and earshot, hovering over the delivery station for a moment, before steadily lowering and depositing the goods into a sealed box that can only be unlocked by entering the customer’s phone number. Dinner is served with not a human in sight.

Meituan aims to beat human delivery times by about 10%, although perhaps because of its journey whizzing through the clouds in a thin polystyrene box, the food, char siu pork and a waffle, is slightly cold.

The drones are a small part of the broader robotics and artificial intelligence industry that China is intent on expanding on this year.

China’s leaders see artificial intelligence as being the key to upgrading its military strength, solving the problems created by a shrinking workforce, and a source of national pride - especially when Chinese firms manage to circumvent US-led sanctions on core technology. And technology firms, for many years shunned by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, are being welcomed back into the fold as Xi seeks to restore confidence in the private sector and encourage domestic innovation.