?כיצד מימון אמריקני הביא בסופו של דבר לייצור כלבי רובוט מתקדמים בסין

A Chinese robotics giant is facing new scrutiny over the technology behind its machines. Researchers and a former U.S. defense official say the company based designs on innovations funded by the U.S. military. Here's a closer look. In the race to mass-produce robot dogs, China is beating the United States. Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics developed its Vision 60 robots from Army-funded academic research in quadruped movement. The company wasn't alone. China's Unitree Robotics, among the world's biggest producers of humanoid and canine robots, based designs for its most successful four-legged machines on the same U.S. military-funded breakthroughs. Researchers involved in the projects told Reuters. This is technology that at its core was developed at U.S. universities, funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars. Gavin Keneally is the CEO of Ghost Robotics, which has supplied the U.S. military with its Vision 60s for surveillance and search operations. There were papers published, and then these papers were very closely studied by Chinese companies like Unitree, and these principles were put to work and then scaled in an exceptional way using amazing manufacturing and supply chain technology, to where now you see companies like Unitree and other companies in China are shipping way more legged robots than American companies are. Unitree did nothing underhanded in using the research, which was openly published to stimulate progress, a common practice. But it helped propel the company to global market dominance. And the company's imminent Shanghai stock market debut has drawn frenzied demand. Unitree did not respond to requests for comment. It has said in public statements that its products are intended for civilian use. And in 2022, the firm, alongside U.S. companies, pledged not to weaponize robots. But another company's robotic wolves were displayed at a military parade in Beijing last year. And Chinese state television has shown an armed version of a Unitree robot alongside Chinese troops. Publishing U.S.-funded research presents a broader issue for American firms competing with Chinese manufacturing, which has developed at lightning pace over the past decade in industries critical to national security, backed by subsidies and a tolerance for heavy losses. Here's Hugh Grant Chapman, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS. I think the biggest factor in China's advantage for developing its robotics industry is its massive industrial base, its vast ecosystem of manufacturing, factories, and things that provide both kind of demand-side support for its robotics industry, as well as cheap access to all the components it needs to manufacture those. When I look at where the U.S. has fallen behind, I see that loss and hollowing out of the manufacturing sector as being a really big driver of why the kind of corresponding national security applications have fallen behind as well. The only way to escape China's chokehold on the robotics supply chain is to work with international partners, says Keneally. There's no way we're going to do this completely on our own as the U.S. We need to work closely with our allies. In particular, you know, at Ghost, we work very closely with companies in Korea, in Taiwan, in Japan, where they have some of this manufacturing and supply chain expertise. So there's absolutely no path forward without them.