Alibaba’s robots are coming to hotels and hospitals

Robots hold an increasingly ubiquitous presence in China. Whether it be on an assembly line, in restaurants, or at a bar, our progressively intelligent companions are becoming part of daily life. Now, Alibaba wants them to take on hotels and hospitals.

Miffy Chen, general manager of Alibaba’s AI Labs, unveiled the company’s Space Egg and Space Shuttle service robots, the former designed for use in hotels while the latter has applications in medicine delivery. The announcement was made at the Cloud Computing Conference in Hangzhou, today (September 20).

While many fear that intelligent robots are a threat to their livelihood, Alibaba believes the robots could reduce to the workload of individuals in the hospitality and health sectors. At the event, Chen said that the company hopes to increase efficiency in the hospitality industry, adding that she believes the next three decades will result in huge disruptions in the robotics industry.

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