The German magazine Fokus reports announcements by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić that Serbia could be the first in Europe to build humanoid robots - with the help of China.
"Serbia plans to mass-produce humanoid robots with Chinese help - both for border protection and the army," writes the German magazine Fokus on its website.
President Aleksandar Vučić reportedly wants his country to be a European leader in the field of humanoids - robots that mimic humans in appearance and some functions.
The Serbian president, Fokus adds, appeared this week at a presentation by the Chinese company AGIBOT in Belgrade. There, he mentioned that Serbia could be the first country in Europe to mass-produce such robots, and that it could show "thousands of robots" at the next military parade.
The robots that, as described by Fokus, danced, made coffee and greeted Vučić, could allegedly be produced in Serbia as early as 2026. In other words, Vučić said that it needs to be seen whether Serbia is capable of "accepting" such an investment.
The president also mentioned 8.000 new jobs in the artificial intelligence and robotics sector, 50 factories where robots will soon work alongside humans, the one hundred million hours it takes for a robot to learn what it does, which is why Serbia needs "data factories", and 600 megawatts of electricity, which is the amount needed for one robot factory, which is the size of a medium-sized city.
Focus writes: "Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have warned for years against arming autonomous systems. They argue that systems that select and attack targets 'without significant human control' could undermine international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch is therefore calling for international rules or a ban on these 'killer robots' before they are introduced."
However, writing about Vučić's idea with robots in the army, Fokus adds that experts are "skeptical" about whether humanoid robots can be robust enough for missions in the near future.
This press selection contains quotes, excerpts and summaries from German-language media and does not reflect the views of the editorial staff.
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