E-commerce giant Alibaba has launched an innovative service robot meant to deliver foods, drinks and other items in a hotel setting. The new robots are reminders of how fast robots are getting deployed and Alibaba Artificial Intelligence (AI) Labs is set to play a big role in the commercialization of robots. This is because the new service robots will be launched for use in the hospitality sector next month (October) thus raising the stakes for service delivery in the sector.

The robots were showcased at Alibaba’s annual Cloud Computing Conference 2018 which was held at the company’s headquarters in China. They are all developed by the company’s AI product development arm known as Alibaba AI Labs. The service robot will be able to deliver meals and take laundry to guests. There is also the ability to communicate with guests via voice command, touch and hand gesture. This is made possible by the integration of AliGenie, the same software that drives Alibaba A.I. Labs’ smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

Read Also: Alibaba’s Jack Ma Urges China, Japan & Others to Develop Local Chip Industry to Stop Reliance on U.S Companies

The robot has an aluminium casing with multi-sensor data functionality and parallel computing for lightning-quick responses. It also includes a semantic map, an autonomous navigation system to identify obstacles, communication systems to control elevators, and identity verification via facial-recognition technology. The device is less than one metre tall and can move at a speed of one metre per second.  Alibaba A.I. Labs says it will assess the robot’s suitability for other areas, including hospitals, restaurants and office services after its being tried successfully at a hotel.

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Amazon kicked off the smart speaker race with the Amazon Echo in 2014. Just three years down and other big names like Google (Home), Lenovo, and Apple (Homepod) have joined the race. Samsung is also working on its own too. But ahead of the Korean comany comes Alibaba with the AliGenie X1 smart speaker and AI assistant.

There were rumors floating around that the Chinese e-commerce giant was going to release a smart speaker soon and it did so today. The new smart speaker was unveiled at the Drum tower in Beijing today.

The AliGenie X1 takes instructions in mandarin and comes with an AI assistant called Genie. Some of its functions include smart home control, music playback and voice shopping.  It can also take down notes, shopping lists and set reminders.

The smart speaker looks a bit like the Google Home thanks to the mesh at the base that covers the speaker(s). Unlike the Google home which has a replaceable base that comes in a variety of colors, the Alibaba smart speaker is available in eiter complete white or black.

The AliGenie X1 smart speaker is powered by the new Mediatek MT8516 voice chip. The chip is specially made for voice assistant devices and smart speakers with Google Assistant and Android Things support. It is made up of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.3GHz.

READ MORE: Samsung Vega Smart Speaker with Bixby AI in Works

The speaker has a 360°omni-directional microphone that can pick up sounds from 5m away. There is Bluetooth 4.0 LE as well as WiFi connectivity.

There is no info on availability at the moment but the AliGenie X1 will sell for ¥499 (∼73) which is cheap compared to the Google Home ($129) and Amazon Echo($179.99).

(Video Source)

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