Gu Chunyuan, chairman of the hottest ABB Group in

Gu Chunyuan, chairman of ABB Group China: robots will not completely replace people

Fortune Global Technology Forum was held in Guangzhou, China from November 29 to 30, 2018. Gu Chunyuan, President of ABB Group Asia, Middle East and Africa and chairman of ABB Group China, attended and spoke

when it comes to artificial intelligence, Gu Chunyuan said that after the invention of industrial robots, European and American trade unions were very opposed. At that time, the headlines of many newspapers were "robots are stealing our jobs". However, today, the popularity of robots in Germany, Japan and South Korea is very high, and the unemployment rate is also very low. Therefore, robots will not completely replace people, but will replace heavy, bitter, dangerous work that everyone is unwilling to do. More importantly, robots can enhance the competitiveness of the company and make the company better and more competitive

for example, he said that industrial robots can go to places we can't go. Today, there is a lot of work to be done to inspect and patrol key infrastructure. There are many infrastructures in the world, but no one checks them section by section. For example, when the water on the dam washes down, the water pressure is particularly high. If the cement is "tired", the dam may collapse. At this time, the drone can be sent over. The inspection that people can complete in a few weeks or months will be completed when the drone flies over and takes a picture

the following is the transcript of the dialogue:

Gu Chunyuan: this problem has existed for 40 and 50 years. Since the invention of industrial robots, it was mainly in European and American trade unions, which were very opposed to industrial robots. At that time, the headlines of many newspapers were "robots are stealing our jobs", but today, it is precisely these countries, such as Germany, Japan and South Korea, that the popularity of robots is very high and the unemployment rate is very low, You can also see this conclusion. However, it does not mean that robots will not replace any work. Robots will replace the heavy, bitter, dangerous work of Wertheim in Germany, which everyone is unwilling to do. More importantly, robots can enhance the competitiveness of the company and make the company better and more competitive

our company is one of the market leaders. Our products have spread over 53 countries, and China has become our most important market. We entered China in 1994, and we are also the first foreign enterprise to enter this industry in China. Today, we not only have manufacturing, but also research and development, as well as design, sales and service in China. We now have a factory built ten years ago in Shanghai, and I was also one of the leaders of this project at that time. Today, this factory is already one of the largest factories in the whole group, but we need to further expand our production capacity in Shanghai. We want to build a future factory. Today, everyone is talking about intelligent manufacturing, not only using robots, but also reflecting digitalization, collaboration and simplification. Especially in the discrete production process, we need this more. In the manufacturing industry, we have logistics, information flow and action flow

host: robots can replace action flow and operation flow, but now we have to take care of the more important information flow before the experiment

Gu Chunyuan: there are many smart islands in the future factories, which will be connected through networks, and highly coordinated through information. At the same time, it is also necessary to solve the material flow. We no longer have rigid assembly lines. There are intelligent islands in the factory, which are connected by networks

host: are you considering pilotless aircraft in Shanghai

Gu Chunyuan: not yet. UAV will play an important role in the future and help intelligent production, because it is very flexible. It can transport information and materials to the local, and also can do some emergency response. It is very flexible. So this is a revolution. Of course, it will play an important role, but it will take longer, not tomorrow

host: what is the most important technology

Gu Chunyuan: I think the most important technology is that when we talk about intelligent manufacturing, we are talking about two things. The first is that the equipment, the products and equipment inside the factory need to be digitalized. Digitalization is not to put sensors there for communication, but in the factory, we have engines, and they don't need digitalization and communication, but if you digitalize the factory, We need to automate these engines. Not only sensors, but also more equipment need to be digitized

second, the manufacturing process needs to be assisted by networks. You can use these latest technologies, including AI, in these two areas. One is that good use of AI can improve quality and productivity. In addition, it can also transform the business model. Therefore, there are many new technologies that we need to make use of. We need to cooperate with academia, industry, government, etc. to cooperate in this framework and make it work

host: what role do people play in this? If someone washes clothes with river water

Gu Chunyuan: people will play an important role, because history tells us that we are carrying out the fourth industrial revolution. Each industrial revolution will make everyone richer and more people participate, so we don't have to worry about the role of people. Instead of doing the right work, we need development and progress. Therefore, the government plays an important role in educating people. Some jobs in the factory will disappear, and there may be no one in the factory, but you need to do new jobs and new skills, which is more important

host: sometimes we don't want to threaten people's lives, so we can let drones do such work. We talked about the California fire. This is my first time to China. I also noticed that the air quality in Chinese cities is not very good, with some haze. ABB makes energy related products. How can we make the new factory more energy-saving and environmental friendly

Gu Chunyuan: ABB provides electric power, automation and other equipment. Our key technology is to bring renewable energy to any place you want, so that the use of energy will be reduced. Generally, if there is renewable energy, some places are not in great demand, and we want to bring more renewable energy to the place where we need it. In a recent project, we cooperate with China. China will host the Winter Olympics outside Beijing. We can bring renewable energy to the Winter Olympics. We can do many things

host: another problem I want to say is that automation may aggravate the wealth gap, because some low-end jobs have disappeared and been replaced by machines. Therefore, the wealth of the upper class will increase and the wealth of the lower class will decrease. How to solve this problem

Gu Chunyuan: you are talking about two things. One is that technology will improve production efficiency, bring more wealth to the whole society and enterprises. This does not mean that a group of people or a group of people will be richer. These are two different problems. Because there are different ways of distributing wealth. Society also has many regulatory provisions and methods to redistribute wealth. For me, the most important way is that some of our jobs may disappear today. We must support them and provide them with opportunities for re education, so that they can have new jobs. Because what we need is new skills. We all come out of school, from primary school to middle school and high school. It takes us 9 years to complete basic education. We don't need 9 years to let current people learn current skills. We will let more people get training

host: we can be more intelligent in the manufacturing industry. I want each of you to make a prediction

Gu Chunyuan: I think manufacturing will be distributed and efficiency will be greatly improved

Sina statement: all the meeting transcripts are compiled by on-site shorthand and have not been reviewed by the speaker. Sina's publication of this article for the purpose of transmitting more information does not mean that it agrees with its views or confirms its description

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