[2024 Future Business Forum] Lee Sang-ho, CEO of Mandro, "Must Minimize Robot Learning Costs Like Tesla"

Session 3 'The Approaching Era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)'
"Data Naturally Accumulates Through Robot Gesture Adjustment"

Lee Sang-ho, CEO of Mandro, stated that to popularize humanoid robots, the approach should be to minimize learning costs like Tesla. Tesla unveiled its humanoid robot 'Optimus Gen2' last December.

On the 22nd, a panel discussion on the theme "The Approaching Era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)" was held at the '2024 Asia Future Enterprise Forum' hosted by Asia Economy at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. From left to right: Professor Park Su-yong of Sogang University Department of Computer Science, Na Seung-joo, Executive Director of Intel Korea, Lee Sang-ho, CEO of Mandro, Lee Se-jung, Head of KT AI Service Lab, and Lim Woo-hyung, Executive Director of LG AI Research Institute. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

At the third session of the 'Asia Future Business Forum' titled 'The Approaching Era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)' held on the 22nd at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, CEO Lee, participating as a panelist, said, "When Optimus Gen2 is used, remote workers will train (the humanoid robot) while working," adding, "Data will naturally accumulate (in the robot) through gesture control." He continued, "I believe it is right to move in the direction of minimizing learning costs like Tesla."

This positively evaluates Tesla's case while mentioning cost issues as a difficulty in the spread of humanoid robots. He said, "Learning and reasoning all incur costs, so we are trying to simplify the problems that robots can solve," and added, "For robots, I think a segmented and targeted AI approach is more efficient than a general-purpose one."

Currently, the spread of humanoid robots is not strong due to cost issues. CEO Lee said, "If a robot has arms, it becomes expensive and heavy, so serving robots, patrol robots, and other currently commercialized cases do not have arms." However, he added that if autonomous robots have arms, they will be able to perform many functions such as opening doors or riding elevators.

On the 22nd, Lee Sang-ho, CEO of Mandro, demonstrated a robotic prosthetic hand at the Asia Future Business Forum. Photo by Lee Sung-min minute@

On this day, CEO Lee also demonstrated a robotic prosthetic arm in action. Sensors were attached to the fingers, shoulders, and elbows, and when he raised his arm, the robotic prosthetic arm moved in the same way. The movement of finger joints was also synchronized with the robotic prosthetic arm. CEO Lee said, "If a robot has arms, remote operators can replace workers," adding, "As more time passes and data accumulates, some tasks can be automated." He further added, "In dangerous environments, robotic arms can be used instead of actual workers."

Mandro is a startup that won the highest innovation award for its robotic prosthetic arm at CES 2024, the world's largest IT exhibition. The affordable prosthetic arms made for amputees are gaining attention in the robotics industry, which desires cheap and lightweight arm functions. Recently, they started a proof of concept (POC) by attaching arms to autonomous robots.