On September 5th, NBC reported that in China, buying drinks is rewarded with artificial intelligence (AI) tokens, and coffee orders are completely completed by robots. Subtitle: As China and the United States compete in the global cutting-edge technology field, advanced technology is rapidly integrating into the daily lives of white-collar workers in China. In the most popular newly opened Seven Fresh coffee shop in the Chinese capital, there is neither a cashier nor a human barista. The store opened by Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com last month was dubbed by the media as the "world's first 24-hour intelligent unmanned coffee shop", where all coffee drinks are independently processed by robots from grinding, extraction, blending to cup dispensing and cabinet loading.
On a recent afternoon, this coffee shop located in the urban area of Beijing was crowded with white-collar customers, and advanced technology is rapidly becoming a part of their daily lives. Customers place orders through the self-service ordering system, and then a robot begins to work in the space enclosed by curved transparent glass. It is wearing a hoodie, necklace, duckbill cap, and headphones, exuding a hip-hop DJ vibe. But it is undoubtedly a robot: with only a torso and two arms, its movements have a mechanical feel. It puts the drinks into the dining cabinet, and customers enter the pickup code to collect the drinks.
Image source: Visual China
26 year old Mia Li felt curious after seeing the report and came to this robot coffee shop specifically. She said, 'I just observed that its production speed is relatively slow. But as long as it can speed up the process, it is a great development direction for office workers like us.'.
There is also a bar called AGI Bar in the urban area of Beijing, named after the cutting-edge concept of "General Artificial Intelligence". The bar is located in Zhongguancun, a Silicon Valley like area that is home to many Chinese tech giants and startups. Since its opening last summer, this bar has become a gathering place for AI developers, students, and investors, who have been inspired by China's rapid progress in the AI field.
The walls of the bar are decorated with logos of the main participants in China's AI field. Customers can obtain free access to the DeepSeek V4 Flash API by making purchases at the store and connecting to the in store Wi Fi. Customers can sit here for a few hours, using relevant keywords for their own projects or trying out the latest AI models.
But for many AI professionals working nearby, the greater appeal of this bar lies in the ability to stay connected with industry peers. AI is the topic of conversation here, with customers discussing the latest breakthroughs in AI and future development directions. The bar's signature drink is a standard cup of beer with a price of 9.9 yuan and most of it is foam, which has a sense of self mockery in response to the criticism of AI upsurge. The founder of the bar stated that he is using AI intelligent agents to achieve most of the management and operation of the bar, and also plans to use humanoid robots to further reduce labor costs.
Despite the uncertainty in the AI field, AI practitioner Mr. Cui stated that the Chinese public has a very positive attitude towards this technology. "The Chinese public has long accepted this concept: with the rapid development of society, everyone needs to keep up with the times. Since the 1980s, we have witnessed wave after wave of technological changes. People naturally believe that moving forward is the right direction, and we do not want to be left behind by the times. (Authors Dawn Liu, Jennifer Jeter, etc., translated by Ding Ting)
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