不能上餐的機器人服務員也受追捧

SHANGHAI — The mind-reading headsets won’t read minds. The fire-detecting machine has been declared a safety hazard. The robot waiter can’t be trusted with the soup.

上海——能讀人想法的耳機什麼都沒讀出來。檢測火災的機器人已被宣佈爲安全隱患。機器人服務員端湯讓人不放心。

China is ready for the future, even if the future hasn’t quite arrived.

中國已爲未來做好了準備，儘管未來尚未到來。

China has become a global technological force in just a few years. It is shaping the future of the internet. Its technology ambitions helped prompt the Trump administration to start a trade war. Hundreds of millions of people in China now use smartphones to shop online, pay their bills and invest their money, sometimes in ways more advanced than in the United States.

短短几年裏，中國已成爲全球技術主力，正在塑造着互聯網的未來。中國的技術野心是促使特朗普政府發動貿易戰的其中一個原因。中國目前有數億人使用智能手機在網上購物、支付賬單、做投資，其中一些方式要比美國更先進。

That has led many people in China to embrace technology full tilt, no matter how questionable. Robots wait on restaurant diners. Artificial intelligence marks up schoolwork. Facial recognition technology helps dole out everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken orders to toilet paper. China is in a competition with itself for the world record for dancing robots

這促使許多中國人全面擁抱了技術，不管某些技術還多麼不成熟。機器人在餐廳爲就餐者服務。人工智能給學生的作業打分。人臉識別技術在幫助分發從肯德基餐到衛生紙的各種東西。中國正在一次又一次地打破自己創下的跳舞機器人世界紀錄。

That embrace of tech for tech’s sake — and the sometimes dubious results it leads to — were on display at the Global Intelligence and World Business Summit, held last month in Shanghai, which several luminaries in Chinese tech and academia were supposed to kick off with their minds.

這種爲技術而接受技術——有時還包括接受它們帶來的可疑結果——上個月在上海舉行的“2018全球智能+新商業峯會”上有所展現，峯會邀請了中國技術界和學術界的幾位名人，按照計劃，他們將用意識來爲峯會揭幕。

Donning black headbands that looked like implements of electroshock therapy, the seven men and two women onstage were told to envision themselves pressing a button. The headbands would transmit their brain activity to the robotic hand sharing the stage, which would then push a button to officially start the conference.

臺上七男兩女九個人戴着黑色頭帶，看上去像是要做電擊治療，他們被告知用腦子想象按按鈕的動作。他們戴的頭帶會把他們的大腦活動傳遞給同在臺上的機械手，然後，這個機械手會按一個標誌着會議正式開始的按鈕。

A countdown began. A camera put the robotic hand onto a huge screen above the stage. The people onstage seemed to concentrate. And then, nothing happened. The hand remained motionless. The camera panned away.

倒計時開始了。攝像機將拍攝的機械手投影到舞臺上方一個巨大的屏幕上。臺上的人似乎在聚精會神地想。接下來，什麼都沒發生。機械手毫無動靜。攝像機轉向了別的畫面。

A spokesman for Yiou, the tech consultant that hosted the event, declined to comment except for: .

主辦此次活動的技術諮詢公司億歐的發言人拒絕發表評論，只表示：（兩個笑哭表情）。

All of this embarrasses some people in the Chinese tech scene. They warn that the excess exuberance is one sign of a venture capital bubble, which may be about to burst. Rather than show China’s newfound tech might, they argue, spectacles like dancing robots and ineffective mind readers cover up the country’s lack of progress in other areas.

這一切讓中國技術界的一些人感到尷尬。他們警告說，技術市場的過度繁榮是風險投資泡沫的一個跡象，這個泡沫可能將要破滅。他們認爲，機器人跳舞和不管用的讀心技術之類的表演，並不是中國新取得的技術威力的展示，而是掩蓋了中國在其他領域缺乏進展的事實。

Those deficiencies were made clear in April when the United States forbade American companies to sell chips, software and other technology to ZTE, a Chinese telecom company. ZTE was found to have violated American sanctions by selling products to Iran and North Korea. The ban brought the company to a virtual standstill.

中國的短處在今年4月顯露無疑，當時，由於發現中國電信公司中興通訊(ZTE)違反了美國的制裁，向伊朗和朝鮮出售產品，美國政府下令禁止美國公司向其出售芯片、軟件和其他技術。該禁令讓中興實際上進入了停頓狀態。

Chinese people shouldn’t lose touch with reality, warned Liu Yadong, chief editor of the state-run Science and Technology Daily. In a recent speech, he said that China still lagged the United States in tech, and that those who argued otherwise ran the risk of “tricking leaders, fooling the public and even fooling themselves.”

官方媒體《科技日報》總編輯劉亞東警告說，中國人不應該無視現實。劉亞東在最近的一篇演講中說，中國在科學技術上仍落後於美國，那些不承認差距的人“忽悠了領導，忽悠了公衆，甚至忽悠了自己”。

China isn’t the first country to get ahead of itself in tech. Japan at the height of its economic powers had robots that prepared sushi. More recently, Silicon Valley has gone gaga over more than a few pointless products, like Yo — the app that said only “yo” — and Juicero, the $700 juicer. Ultimately the exuberance could be a good thing for China, as useful products find their place and bad ones disappear when the boom matures.

中國並不是第一個誇大本國技術能力的國家。日本在其經濟鼎盛時代曾推出過製作壽司的機器人。近年的硅谷也對一些毫無意義的產品着迷不已，比如只會說“Yo”的應用Yo，還有售價700美元的榨汁機Juicero。不過，這種繁榮對中國來說，可能最終是一件好事，因爲在從快速增長到成熟的過程中，有用的產品會脫穎而出，壞的產品則會消失。

And China has come a long way. What was an agrarian backwater 40 years ago is home to the world’s single largest group of internet users and some of its most valuable internet companies.

中國已取得了很大的進步。40年前，中國曾是一個以農業爲主的落後國家，如今這裏有全球獨一無二的、最大的互聯網用戶羣，以及一些全球最有價值的互聯網公司。

Now it’s pushing ahead into emerging tech. In 2017, Chinese start-ups took up nearly half the dollars raised globally for artificial intelligence, according to CB Insights, a research firm that follows venture capital. By 2020, China is expected to account for more than 30 percent of worldwide spending on robotics, according to technology research firm IDC.

現在，中國正在向新興技術產業推進。據追蹤風險投資的研究公司CB Insights的數據，2017年，中國初創企業拿到了全球人工智能方面集資的近一半。據從事技術研究的國際數據公司(IDC)的數據，預計到2020年，中國在機器人研發上的支出將佔全球的30%以上。

Many in China see the country’s supremacy over the United States in tech as inevitable, and they are eager to get to that day.

中國有不少人認爲，該國在技術領域超過美國是不可避免的，他們迫不及待地期待着這個日子的到來。

“Chinese are much more willing to try something new just because it looks cool,” said Andy Tian, chief executive of Beijing-based Asia Innovations Group, which runs mobile apps. “It sounds superficial. It is superficial. But that’s the driver of progress in a lot of cases.”

“中國人更願意嘗試新東西，只是因爲這些東西看起來很酷，”總部設在北京的亞洲創新集團首席執行官田行智說，該公司從事移動應用業務。“這聽起來淺薄，是表面的東西。但在許多情況下，這也在推動進步。”

The E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff could fill that bill. It is among several security robots that have shown up at train stations and airports around China in recent months. The E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff — which looks like the camera lens from the HAL 9000 computer in “2001: A Space Odyssey” mounted on a white trash tub — patrols the high-speed rail station in the central Chinese city Zhengzhou, tasked with using facial recognition to find and follow suspicious characters, as well as to measure air quality and detect fires.

電子巡邏機器人警察(E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff)可能就是這樣的例子。它是近幾個月來出現在中國各地火車站和機場的保安機器人之一。電子巡邏機器人警察的樣子看起來像是把影片《2001太空漫遊》(2001: A Space Odyssey)中的計算機HAL 9000的攝像鏡頭安裝在了一個白色垃圾箱上。中國中部城市鄭州的高鐵火車站用過電子巡邏機器人警察巡邏，其任務包括通過人臉識別尋找和跟蹤可疑人員，以及測量空氣質量和探測火災。

During a winter visit to the station, the robot was nowhere to be found. First, it had missed a fire, officials said. It also had a tendency to collect so many selfie-seeking fans that it became a safety hazard. A spokesman for the train station said it was getting an upgrade and would eventually return.

記者冬天去這個火車站訪問時沒有找到這種機器人。官員說，第一個原因是，這個機器人未能檢測到一次火災。第二，機器人警察吸引了太多想與之自拍的人，以至於它本身已成爲安全隱患。火車站的一位發言人說，正在對機器人警察進行升級改造，它最終會回來。

Robots in particular have captured the Chinese imagination. A Beijing television station this year made a robot-dominated version of the country’s annual Lunar New Year television special. Robots and humans performed tai chi and comedy routines, and sang and danced.

機器人尤其讓中國人心生嚮往。北京一家電視臺今年製作了一個以機器人爲主的春節聯歡晚會。晚會上，機器人與人一起表演太極和喜劇小品，一起唱歌跳舞。

Companies and local officials often have good reason to show off their splashiest and silliest wares. China frequently takes a top-down approach to technology, with local governments rushing to follow plans that come down from on high. Gizmos with a bit of futuristic verve are often the best symbols of progress.

企業和地方官員經常有很好的理由來炫耀他們最招搖、最荒唐的產品。中國經常靠自上而下的手段來推動技術發展，結果是地方政府急於完成上面佈置下來的計劃。有點兒未來主義感的小玩意通常是進步的最好象徵。

Dancing robots, for example, became something of a fixture of company and government presentations last year. “They were everywhere,” said David Li, a co-founder of Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab, a government-supported platform that supports small hardware start-ups in Shenzhen. He estimated that he had seen 10 dancing robot shows in a single week.

以跳舞機器人爲例，去年，跳舞機器人成了公司和政府成果展上的一個固定項目。“到處都可以看到它們，”深圳開放創新實驗室的聯合創始人李大維說，該實驗室有來自政府的資金，專門支持深圳的小型硬件初創企業。李大維估計他在一週裏看到了10場機器人舞蹈表演。

Alibaba, the Chinese online shopping giant, has also gotten into the act, though in a more sophisticated way. At one of its new Hema grocery stores in Shanghai, rolling robots take cooked food out onto a sort of runway that connects the kitchen to seating. A team of waiters standing nearby said a human hand was required for soup and steamed dishes, lest the robots inadvertently splash someone with hot liquid.

中國在線購物巨頭阿里巴巴也加入到這個行動中來，不過是以更先進的方式。機器人在阿里巴巴在上海新開的盒馬鮮生實體店裏跑來跑去，把做熟的食品放在一條將廚房與餐桌連接起來的傳送帶上。站在傳送帶邊上的一隊服務員說，湯和蒸的東西仍需要人來端，以免機器人不小心把熱液體灑到人的身上。

An Alibaba spokeswoman said in an email that the store was a prototype that sought to combine digitization with a unique consumer experience. “The system has driven significant traffic to the Hema store,” she added.

阿里巴巴的一位發言人在一封電子郵件中說，該店是一個尋求將數字化與獨特的消費體驗結合起來的雛形。“這個系統已給盒馬店帶來了巨大的客流量，”該發言人補充說。

Robot restaurants have been popping up across China. One in Shanghai’s Xujiahui district, Robot Magic Restaurant, cultivates a space-age, mini-golf ambience. Diners enter through a door on which animated fairies flap their wings. Inside, a robot with hearts for eyes charged its batteries in an ersatz cave rimmed by silver stalagmites tipped with glowing white lights. On the ceiling, fake stars twinkled.

使用機器人的餐廳已在中國遍地開花。上海徐家彙的機器人魔力餐廳(Robot Magic Restaurant)給人以一種太空時代迷你高爾夫的氛圍。用餐者從顯示扇着翅膀的仙女的動畫門進來。餐廳裏，一個長着心形眼睛的機器人在一個人造山洞裏給自己的電池充電，洞裏鑲嵌着銀色的石筍，上面點綴着發白光的小燈。天花板上閃爍着假的星星。

Waiters said their automated counterparts caused more work than they saved. The robots take trays of food out to customers, but are unable to lower them to the table. Real waiters stand back so photos and videos can be taken before shuffling in and serving food the old-fashioned way.

服務員說，機器人服務員給他們帶來了更多、而不是更少的工作。機器人能把放食品的托盤送到顧客面前，但無法將其降低放到餐桌上。真人服務員先得躲得遠遠的，讓就餐者給機器人拍照片、拍視頻，然後再走上前來，用老方式上菜。

The robots also break down. Three times during an hour lunch, a waiter had to lean a robot on its side and take a blowtorch to the undercarriage to burn out food and trash caught in its axles. When asked whether he was worried that the robots would take his job, the waiter laughed.

機器人還會壞。在那裏用午餐的一小時時間裏，一名服務員有三次不得不把一個機器人放倒，用噴燈把卡在機器人身上各種軸承上的食物和垃圾燒掉。當記者問這名服務員，他是否擔心機器人會搶走他的工作時，服務員笑了。

Still, patrons were impressed.

不過，機器人很讓顧客佩服。

“I’ve just been to America, and I didn’t see many new things at all,” said Xie Aijuan, a retiree in her 50s. “I don’t think they have anything like robotic restaurants there.”

“我纔去過美國，但我在那兒完全都沒看到過這麼多的新鮮事，”50多歲的退休人員謝愛娟說。“我想他們肯定沒有像這樣的機器人餐廳。”

“China is surpassing America,” agreed her dining companion, Zhuang Jiazheng. “Robots are coming. Tech is advancing. It’s all a matter of time.”

“中國現在正在超越美國呢，”與她一起用餐的莊嘉徵同意她的說法。“機器人的時代馬上就要來了，科技都在發展，達成這些都只是時間問題罷了。”