中國(guó)技術(shù)熱潮：不能上餐的機(jī)器人服務(wù)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(jī)什么都沒(méi)讀出來(lái)。檢測(cè)火災(zāi)的機(jī)器人已被宣布為安全隱患。機(jī)器人服務(wù)員端湯讓人不放心。

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

中國(guó)已為未來(lái)做好了準(zhǔn)備，盡管未來(lái)尚未到來(lái)。

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.

短短幾年里，中國(guó)已成為全球技術(shù)主力，正在塑造著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的未來(lái)。中國(guó)的技術(shù)野心是促使特朗普政府發(fā)動(dòng)貿(mào)易戰(zhàn)的其中一個(gè)原因。中國(guó)目前有數(shù)億人使用智能手機(jī)在網(wǎng)上購(gòu)物、支付賬單、做投資，其中一些方式要比美國(guó)更先進(jìn)。

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(guó)人全面擁抱了技術(shù)，不管某些技術(shù)還多么不成熟。機(jī)器人在餐廳為就餐者服務(wù)。人工智能給學(xué)生的作業(yè)打分。人臉識(shí)別技術(shù)在幫助分發(fā)從肯德基餐到衛(wèi)生紙的各種東西。中國(guó)正在一次又一次地打破自己創(chuàng)下的跳舞機(jī)器人世界紀(jì)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.

這種為技術(shù)而接受技術(shù)——有時(shí)還包括接受它們帶來(lái)的可疑結(jié)果——上個(gè)月在上海舉行的“2018全球智能+新商業(yè)峰會(huì)”上有所展現(xiàn)，峰會(huì)邀請(qǐng)了中國(guó)技術(shù)界和學(xué)術(shù)界的幾位名人，按照計(jì)劃，他們將用意識(shí)來(lái)為峰會(huì)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(tái)上七男兩女九個(gè)人戴著黑色頭帶，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(dòng)作。他們戴的頭帶會(huì)把他們的大腦活動(dòng)傳遞給同在臺(tái)上的機(jī)械手，然后，這個(gè)機(jī)械手會(huì)按一個(gè)標(biāo)志著會(huì)議正式開(kāi)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(jì)時(shí)開(kāi)始了。攝像機(jī)將拍攝的機(jī)械手投影到舞臺(tái)上方一個(gè)巨大的屏幕上。臺(tái)上的人似乎在聚精會(huì)神地想。接下來(lái)，什么都沒(méi)發(fā)生。機(jī)械手毫無(wú)動(dòng)靜。攝像機(jī)轉(zhuǎn)向了別的畫(huà)面。

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

主辦此次活動(dòng)的技術(shù)咨詢(xún)公司億歐的發(fā)言人拒絕發(fā)表評(píng)論，只表示：(兩個(gè)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(guó)技術(shù)界的一些人感到尷尬。他們警告說(shuō)，技術(shù)市場(chǎng)的過(guò)度繁榮是風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資泡沫的一個(gè)跡象，這個(gè)泡沫可能將要破滅。他們認(rèn)為，機(jī)器人跳舞和不管用的讀心技術(shù)之類(lèi)的表演，并不是中國(guó)新取得的技術(shù)威力的展示，而是掩蓋了中國(guó)在其他領(lǐng)域缺乏進(jìn)展的事實(shí)。

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(guó)的短處在今年4月顯露無(wú)疑，當(dāng)時(shí)，由于發(fā)現(xiàn)中國(guó)電信公司中興通訊(ZTE)違反了美國(guó)的制裁，向伊朗和朝鮮出售產(chǎn)品，美國(guó)政府下令禁止美國(guó)公司向其出售芯片、軟件和其他技術(shù)。該禁令讓中興實(shí)際上進(jìn)入了停頓狀態(tài)。

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?qǐng)?bào)》總編輯劉亞?wèn)|警告說(shuō)，中國(guó)人不應(yīng)該無(wú)視現(xiàn)實(shí)。劉亞?wèn)|在最近的一篇演講中說(shuō)，中國(guó)在科學(xué)技術(shù)上仍落后于美國(guó)，那些不承認(rèn)差距的人“忽悠了領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，忽悠了公眾，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(guó)并不是第一個(gè)夸大本國(guó)技術(shù)能力的國(guó)家。日本在其經(jīng)濟(jì)鼎盛時(shí)代曾推出過(guò)制作壽司的機(jī)器人。近年的硅谷也對(duì)一些毫無(wú)意義的產(chǎn)品著迷不已，比如只會(huì)說(shuō)“Yo”的應(yīng)用Yo，還有售價(jià)700美元的榨汁機(jī)Juicero。不過(guò)，這種繁榮對(duì)中國(guó)來(lái)說(shuō)，可能最終是一件好事，因?yàn)樵趶目焖僭鲩L(zhǎng)到成熟的過(guò)程中，有用的產(chǎn)品會(huì)脫穎而出，壞的產(chǎn)品則會(huì)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(guó)已取得了很大的進(jìn)步。40年前，中國(guó)曾是一個(gè)以農(nóng)業(yè)為主的落后國(guó)家，如今這里有全球獨(dú)一無(wú)二的、最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶群，以及一些全球最有價(jià)值的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)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(xiàn)在，中國(guó)正在向新興技術(shù)產(chǎn)業(yè)推進(jìn)。據(jù)追蹤風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資的研究公司CB Insights的數(shù)據(jù)，2017年，中國(guó)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)拿到了全球人工智能方面集資的近一半。據(jù)從事技術(shù)研究的國(guó)際數(shù)據(jù)公司(IDC)的數(shù)據(jù)，預(yù)計(jì)到2020年，中國(guó)在機(jī)器人研發(fā)上的支出將占全球的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(guó)有不少人認(rèn)為，該國(guó)在技術(shù)領(lǐng)域超過(guò)美國(guó)是不可避免的，他們迫不及待地期待著這個(gè)日子的到來(lái)。

“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(guó)人更愿意嘗試新東西，只是因?yàn)檫@些東西看起來(lái)很酷，”總部設(shè)在北京的亞洲創(chuàng)新集團(tuán)首席執(zhí)行官田行智說(shuō)，該公司從事移動(dòng)應(yīng)用業(yè)務(wù)。“這聽(tīng)起來(lái)淺薄，是表面的東西。但在許多情況下，這也在推動(dòng)進(jìn)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(jī)器人警察(E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff)可能就是這樣的例子。它是近幾個(gè)月來(lái)出現(xiàn)在中國(guó)各地火車(chē)站和機(jī)場(chǎng)的保安機(jī)器人之一。電子巡邏機(jī)器人警察的樣子看起來(lái)像是把影片《2001太空漫遊》(2001: A Space Odyssey)中的計(jì)算機(jī)HAL 9000的攝像鏡頭安裝在了一個(gè)白色垃圾箱上。中國(guó)中部城市鄭州的高鐵火車(chē)站用過(guò)電子巡邏機(jī)器人警察巡邏，其任務(wù)包括通過(guò)人臉識(shí)別尋找和跟蹤可疑人員，以及測(cè)量空氣質(zhì)量和探測(cè)火災(zāi)。

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(gè)火車(chē)站訪問(wèn)時(shí)沒(méi)有找到這種機(jī)器人。官員說(shuō)，第一個(gè)原因是，這個(gè)機(jī)器人未能檢測(cè)到一次火災(zāi)。第二，機(jī)器人警察吸引了太多想與之自拍的人，以至于它本身已成為安全隱患。火車(chē)站的一位發(fā)言人說(shuō)，正在對(duì)機(jī)器人警察進(jìn)行升級(jí)改造，它最終會(huì)回來(lái)。