(Yicai) Aug. 20 -- Embodied intelligence may still take two to 10 years to experience a ChatGPT-style breakthrough under ideal conditions, according to the founder of Chinese humanoid robot developer Unitree Robotics. 

The "ChatGPT moment" for embodied intelligence will be a state where robots can complete about 80 percent of assigned tasks upon receiving voice or text instructions across 80 percent of unfamiliar scenarios, Wang Xingxing said during a keynote speech at the World Robot Conference in Beijing today.

The core challenge to reach this milestone lies in aligning the input‑output of large language models with real-world robots, he said, noting that input and output deviations and data loss within robotic systems result in relatively low model generalization and task success rates.

Insufficient generalization capability remains the biggest global bottleneck for embodied intelligence development, Wang noted. "After data collection and training, AI models can achieve a nearly 100 percent success rate within fixed scenarios, but that drops sharply whenever manipulated objects or environmental conditions change even slightly."

Unitree is advancing model self‑evolution for physical artificial intelligence robots, driven by top‑tier AI models, Wang said. Such AI models can autonomously generate robot control codes, which are then validated in simulation or physical robot environments, with research and development teams participating throughout the workflow, he added.

Once this system is deployed, it will boost development efficiency for complete robots, he pointed out.

"With improved foundational model capabilities and expanded multi‑source datasets, AI can substantially lift robots' evolutionary efficiency," Wang noted, adding that this will usher in a new era of self‑evolving physical AI robots.

"Unitree has consistently invested heavily in AI models, which represent our largest spending priority in terms of both capital and manpower," he stressed.

Unitree became the first humanoid robot developer to list on the Chinese mainland yesterday, going public on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style Star Market. Its shares [SHA: 688836] plunged 17.2 percent to CNY700.02 (USD104.02) as of 2.25 p.m. today.

However, the stock ended 460 percent higher from its initial public offering price of CNY150.80 on its debut, bringing the value of Wang's equity in the firm to CNY102.61 billion (USD15.2 billion) based on the closing price.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev