Text robots with artificial intelligence functions are also set to conquer factory buildings in the future. This trend can be seen in the run-up to the Hanover Fair. But while systems from the USA in particular have made the headlines in the current hype about AI, initiatives with significant participation from Germany can also be seen at the industrial show in Hanover.
AI trains factory workers
In advance of Hannover tradefair the Heidelberg AI start-up Aleph Alpha and the IT service provider Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a virtual assistant with artificial intelligence for industrial production. Siemens will also present its experiences with the use of AI in industry. The German industrial group is cooperating with the US software group Microsoft.
Aleph Alpha and HPE will be giving a live demo at the exhibition center next Monday, showing how factory staff can communicate with the robot in natural language and with the help of images. “The AI assistant acts like a highly specialized service technician who supports the factory staff in solving very complex tasks,” said HPE spokesman Patrik Edlund.
Exchange with the AI assistant
When communicating with the machine, the factory staff does not have to stick to a predetermined system or only use certain key terms, but can talk to the system quite naturally. The AI assistant also responds in natural language. The dialogue with the AI assistant can take place in different languages, even if the manual is only available in German or English, for example.
The exchange with the AI assistant can not only take place with spoken text, but also with images. For example, a specialist could photograph the standing position of the robot and ask whether this position is safe. “In the event of acute problems, the AI assistant can provide crucial information to prevent damage or production downtime,” the two providers promise.
Competition for the AI projects of US companies
Aleph Alpha has been developing artificial intelligence on an HPE supercomputer since 2019, which competes with the AI projects of US companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Google. Observers trust the company, which was founded by the business IT specialist Jonas Andrulis, to also play an important international role in this future-oriented field.
Not only providers from Germany are present at the Hannover Messe, but also AI heavyweights from the USA. The results of a cooperation with the US software manufacturer Microsoft will be shown at the booth of the German industrial giant Siemens. Here, too, the focus is on the use of artificial intelligence in industrial production processes.
Programming and avoiding mistakes
In contrast to the natural language dialogue with the machine at Aleph Alpha and HPE, the project from Siemens and Microsoft is also about the program code. ChatGPT from the Microsoft partner OpenAI can not only formulate like a human, but also generate the code of common programming languages. At the Siemens booth in Hanover you can now see how the AI system can speed up the programming of the code for programmable logic controllers.
In the German-American cooperation, a challenge is being tackled that is not easy to solve in many industrial companies: recognizing and avoiding product defects. The machines should learn to see with the help of AI. In Hanover, Siemens and Microsoft will show how images and videos captured by cameras can be analyzed using machine learning and used to monitor and optimize production.
(tiw)
