- On July 6, 2024, China, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2024 (“WAIC”), which is the country's largest artificial intelligence (AI) conference, published the Guidelines for the Governance of Humanoid Robots (“Guidelines”), the industry's first humanoid robot governance rule document published in an open signature manner. These Guidelines were formulated by the Shanghai Law Society and jointly signed by the National and Local Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Association, the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Standardization Technical Committee, and the Shanghai Court Digital Economy Judicial Research and Practice (Jiading) Base.
- These Guidelines inter-alia provide that the manufacturers of humanoid robots must (i) ensure that their products do not pose a threat to human safety and must protect human dignity; (ii) provide users with training on the ethical and lawful use of their machines, as well as setting up risk warning procedures and emergency response systems; and (iii) develop comprehensive risk assessment protocols to identify and mitigate potential threats posed by humanoid robots.
- These Guidelines aim to ensure humanoid robots are designed to be convenient to all of humanity, and that such advanced technology and products related to it are deployed safely.
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