軟銀 阿里巴巴 富士康將合資推機器人

SoftBank, the tech group founded by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, is forming a robotics venture with ecommerce group Alibaba and Apple supplier Foxconn, betting big on the future growth of intelligent personal robots.

由日本億萬富翁孫正義(Masayoshi Son)創辦的科技集團軟銀(Softbank)，正在與電商集團阿里巴巴(Alibaba)及蘋果(Apple)供應商富士康(Foxconn)成立機器人合資企業，大舉押注於智慧個人機器人的未來增長。

Mr Son and Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, predicted a future when robots would become smarter than humans, saying robots connected to the internet would be the future of innovation.

孫正義與阿里巴巴創始人馬雲(Jack Ma)預測未來的機器人將會比人類更聰明，他們稱與網際網路連線的機器人將會是創新的未來方向。

“Robots are going to be as popular as cars,” Mr Ma said yesterday in a joint appearance with Mr Son on the outskirts of Tokyo. “They will be everywhere and I think we all have to get ready for that.”

“機器人將會像汽車一樣普及，”馬雲昨天與孫正義一同現身東京郊區時稱，“它們將無處不在，我認為我們都應該對此做好準備。”

A year ago, Mr Son introduced the world to the androgynous 1.2 metre tall machine called Pepper, which moves on wheels and looks as if it is wearing an iPad as a pendant.

一年前，孫正義向世界介紹了1.2米高的人形機器人Pepper。該機器人靠輪子移動，看起來就像是胸前掛著iPad。

Mr Son highlighted technological advances in Pepper, claiming that the robot could not only read human emotions, but also express feelings of its own that change according to how people interact with it.

孫正義強調了Pepper的技術進步，聲稱該機器人不僅可以識別人類情感，還可以表達自己的情感並隨著人類與之的互動而發生情感變化。

“In 30 years, I hope robots will become one of the core businesses in generating profits for the SoftBank group,” Mr Son said.

“在30年的時間內，我希望機器人將成為軟銀集團產生利潤的核心業務之一，”孫正義稱。

Pepper will be sold to the general public in Japan for Y198,000 ($1,600). Mr Son said the company would aim for monthly production of 1,000 units of Pepper, starting this month.

在日本，Pepper面向公眾的銷售價格將為19.8萬日元（合1600美元）。孫正義稱，從本月開始，該公司對Pepper的月產量目標為1000臺。