CEO of viral backflipping robot company says robots are still years from ‘ChatGPT moment,’ even after investors sent his stock soaring 460%

The CEO of Unitree, a Chinese robotics company whose stock surged 460% following its public debut, has stated that humanoid robots might still be years away from achieving a level of sophistication comparable to "ChatGPT." Speaking at the World Robot Conference in Beijing, Wang Xingxing, the 36-year-old founder of Unitree, stated that the industry's breakthrough, or "ChatGPT moment," could take "2 to 3 years at the fastest, and 5 or even 10 years at the slowest," according to a translated excerpt from his speech.

Wang explained that robots will reach this level of sophistication only when placed in unfamiliar environments, such as homes, and can handle about 80% of tasks through voice commands or text alone. This assessment contrasts with Wang's previous statement at the same conference a year prior, which predicted that the breakthrough moment for robotics would come within five years at the latest.

The CEO's comments also appeared to challenge the significant investor enthusiasm that drove Unitree's stock price to soar 460% on its first day of trading on Shanghai's STAR Market. Despite Unitree's meteoric rise in the industry following a viral video of its robots performing a synchronized dance at the Spring Festival Gala, Wang emphasized that the company's robots remain less efficient than human workers and must be retrained for each new task.

He acknowledged that robots currently struggle with adapting to new situations and tasks, which hinders the industry's progress. Wang also revealed that Unitree is developing a self-evolving development loop, where artificial intelligence tests and continuously evaluates the "control code" of its robots, collaborating with humans to improve and perfect the precision of their movements, which can sometimes falter in "the last few centimeters or millimeters."