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| ITMS 2026 |
Two years ago I attended the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago's McCormick Place and found a rather limited focus on artificial intelligence among the exhibitors. ITMS is back in town so I went again this week. A quiet respite from all the AI/math angst, though that will come in full view when mathematicians take over the same venue in January.
I picked up my badge, the last to say "Illinois Tech" as I registered for a free academic pass well before the layoffs. Of course, you get to see all sorts of neat machines that make stuff but I tried to focus on where artificial intelligence plays a role. This time you could see AI everywhere, though as one exhibitor said, more of a marketing scheme than deep use of modern artificial intelligence. Real artificial intelligence did make appearances: vision recognition for robotic arms, backend software such as bid, invoice and document generation, predictive maintenance, and a variety of robotics, though mostly arms for assembling, cutting and even welding.
I didn't see much of humanoid robots, digital twinning, use of large language models or manufacturing on demand. When do we get to the point that I can describe a product and have it designed, made and shipped to me quickly?
Not soon. I talked with someone from a small company that takes CAD designs and gets them ready for the manufacturing process. I asked him about automating the design phase and he said they leave that to ChatGPT. But OpenAI and Anthropic were nowhere to be found and Microsoft, Google and Amazon had scaled-down exhibits from two years ago.
Two years ago I remarked on the big booths for European and Asian manufacturers. This year had noticeably fewer giant foreign machinery stands. I'm guessing tariffs and trade uncertainty have dampened the influx of foreign suppliers.
China has gone all in on AI and manufacturing. I can imagine a Chinese slogan:
The US uses AI to make theorems, China uses AI to make products.
Chinese advances in robotics are frightening indeed.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who can and has not should travel to Chinese tech cities to see how far ahead they are.
Their population pyramid is much worse though so they will be needing robots to replace human labor and care for humans much sooner than us.
i am not sure where do u keep seeing Chinese tech cities and where in the Chinese tech cities you see what exactly that impresses you?
Deletein any case, China is doomed on multiple levels, huge unemployment rate amongst graduates leaves most to perform logistics and drive Didis (chines version of ueber) around town. This is actually a must need service for anyone not owning or wanting to use a car, and a service that is much appreciated.
Now here comes the automation part which will put everyone out of work that needs to earn money to literally survive or keep his family fed ... pony.ai where Andrew Yao is the chief adviser (now from chief scientist). Anyone at pony.ai is probably a billionaire by now. Yao by now must be worth hundreds of millions of dollars too.
These types of startups are the ones that will cause radical disruption and put millions out of work that actually do something legal, socially beneficial to survive. Now just imagine being replaced or having to compete with robo taxis that take your oder flow away from u. it's a horror show in the making.
``when will we get to the point where I can design a product and have it designed, made, and shipped to me quickly? Not soon''
ReplyDeleteWe have been surprised at the speed with which some feat can be automated. We may be surprised again.