AI lab to stack odds in its favour in brainwave move

The Chinese University of Hong Kong has set up a new AI lab at Science Park that is focused on training robotic brains. The Hong Kong Embodied AI lab is being run by the university's Hong Kong Centre for Logistics Robotics. With 24 industry partners, it is the first full-stack lab in the city and will tackle the most challenging problems in the field of AI robotics. Professor Li Zhongyu, co-director of the lab, said the aim is to conduct world-class research to give robots a level of intelligence that is similar to humans in 10 years. "I think a very different thing we are doing now is... collaborate closely with industry partners," said Li. "Embodied AI is actually new and emerging... neither industry nor academia know the answer [to challenges within the field], so this is a very good time to bring the efforts from both sides." Pro-vice-chancellor in education Irwin King said teaching that the lab passes on to embodied robots would benefit many other universities. "This lab is not only for CUHK, it's really for Hong Kong and for GBA [Greater Bay Area] and the worldwide context," King said. "The interesting thing about this [the new lab] is that they [students] need a lot of lab spaces so a lot of active learning can be done... this is not done through simulation, this is done through real life." Edited by Tony Sabine