The arrival of ChatGPT and other generative AI products with amazing capabilities also brought the expected worries. AI might get out of control one day and lead to our collective doom. It won’t happen overnight, but some of these scenarios often involve sophisticated AI developing its own army of products or robots in an ultimately nefarious plan to take over control of the planet.
We’re probably far from that point, and there’s no indication that AI will become sentient anytime soon. But we already have a case of artificial intelligence running all the operations inside Smart Factory that assembles high-end smartphones.
Specifically, Chinese vendor Xiaomi announced that its new Smart Factory will use robots and AI to manufacture all the Mix Fold 4 and Mix Flip phones it’s about to unveil.
Built from the ground up, the factory features specialized hardware and software that allows Xiaomi to fully automate the manufacturing process. Humans are only involved in supervising the AI, which can manage the entire operations and even figure out solutions to problems it might encounter along the way.
Xiaomi’s Lei Jun posted a few videos on social media to show off the new Xiaomi Smart Factory in Beijing. The new 80,000-square-meter (860,000-sq-ft) factory has 11 production lines that can manufacture 10 million smartphones per year. Per New Atlas, that’s one smartphone about every three seconds, without pause.
The new Smart Factory follows a previous test in Yizhuang. Xiaomi used the Smart Factory to fully automate the production of Mix Fold smartphones, which amounted to one million units a year.
Xiaomi prioritizing foldable devices for these AI-run factories actually makes sense now that I think about it. I attended the Galaxy Fold 6 and Flip 6 event in Paris earlier this week and briefly used Samsung’s new foldable phones.
During that time, I mostly focused on covering their designs and user experience, never once considering how difficult manufacturing smartphones with foldable screens must be compared to traditional models. I looked at the crease without considering what it takes to manufacture these foldable phones. Samsung is likely using automation in its production lines, but Xiaomi went even further.
Putting AI in charge of robots to assemble phones like the Mix Fold 4 and Mix Flip can speed up foldable phone production while ensuring all the sensitive components are handled with extra care.
The Xiaomi CEO did not show us how the smartphones are mass-produced in the videos posted on X. However, we got a look at the “War Room,” where engineers oversee the Xiaomi Hyper IMP (Intelligent Manufacturing Platform). That’s the smart AI that handles the production of Xiaomi’s foldables.
“What’s most impressive,” Lei Jun said, “is that this platform can identify and solve issues while also helping to improve the production process. That’s really incredible! This platform blew our colleagues away when they first saw it.”
Of course, any CEO would say that about a groundbreaking new AI tech without providing specific details. And Lei Jun’s statement is not as scary as it might seem. It doesn’t mean AI can take over human designs and make them its own.
However, Xiaomi did offer more details about the AI in a video on Weibo. According to New Atlas, Xiaomi said that “the 100% self-developed ‘Xiaomi Pengpai Intelligent Manufacturing Platform’ is the brain of the factory, injecting soul into the factory, allowing the entire factory to have self-perception, self-decision-making, and self-execution capabilities, and can independently diagnose equipment problems, improve process flows, and realize full-scenario digital management from raw material procurement to delivery, becoming a true smart factory that can evolve by itself.”
That sounds a little scarier, but only if you fear AI. Doom worries aside, such AI-based automation might expand to all sorts of factories. Some jobs will inevitably be lost to AI.
The real test for Xiaomi’s Smart Factory will come later this year when the Mix Fold 4 and Mix Flip reach consumers. That’s when consumers will be able to inspect the build quality of these robot-built foldables.
