2025-05-20 06:02:00
Foxconn predicts AI will destroy low-end manufacturing jobs
Foxconn chairman Young Liu predicts that the integration of generative AI and robotics will replace low-end manufacturing jobs, urging world leaders to acknowledge impending geopolitical shifts. He explains how rich nations maintain low manufacturing costs through immigration and outsourcing but sees limitations as low-GDP countries become scarce and immigration becomes contentious. Liu asserts that AI and robotics will填补因使用AI和机器人技术而产生的空白,并指出富士康应用生成式AI后,软件能够独立完成新生产线设置工作的80%,尽管最终任务仍需人工辅助。此外,Foxconn正开发名为“FoxBrain”的制造专用模型,旨在开源并部署至所有工厂以持续优化性能。他还透露公司利用AI设计工厂并通过Nvidia的Omniverse工具创建数字孪生模型进行优化,最终应用于实体建设。最后,Liu提到Foxconn计划通过参考设计方案进入电动汽车市场,此举可为客户节省时间和成本。
Computex
Foxconn chair Young Liu has predicted the combination of generative AI and robotics will destroy low-end manufacturing jobs and called on world leaders to recognize inevitable geopolitical shifts that will follow.
Liu on Tuesday delivered a keynote address at the Computex conference in Taiwan and advanced a theory that rich nations do two things to keep the cost of manufactured goods low: Allow immigration to bring in more people willing to work for low wages and outsource to low-GDP countries where costs are lower.
The contract manufacturing giantâs chair sees limits to those trends, as âeventually you will run out of low-GDP countriesâ and immigration becomes a political issue.
âGenerative AI and robotics will fill the void,â he said. âThat is the opportunity I see when a country becomes more prosperous â the low-GDP work will be done by GenAI and robotics.â
âI think that is the real challenge for all developed countries,â Liu added. âI urge leaders of developed countries to watch this very carefully.â
If those leaders are listening, heâll tell them that Foxconn is proof of AI-induced change as after applying generative AI to its own operations itâs found that software working alone can do 80 percent of the work required to set up equipment for a new production run â and do it faster than people. AI struggles to finish the job unless it has human assistance, but the combination of bots and brains is faster at finishing the job than wetware working alone.
Liu also said generative AI is helping Foxconn to resolve production issues more quickly.
âWe thought maybe we could replace every human,â Liu admitted. âWe quickly realized we could not.â But Foxconn has saved enough time that its human experts can now focus on gnarly problems, an outcome the Chairman likes as he finds it hard to hire skilled and experienced staff and would rather they work on high-value tasks.
âFoxBrainâ
Foxconn is therefore investing in more AI to power its factories. Liu revealed the company is creating its own manufacturing-centric model called âFoxBrainâ that will blend Metaâs Llama 3 and 4 models and data drawn from its own operations to create what he described as âAgentic workflow for very domain specific applications.â
The manufacturing giant, formally named Hon Hai Technology Group, intends to open source that model. It also intends to deploy a model to all of its factories and have them contribute data about its performance so that Foxconn headquarters can constantly refine the company AI.
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Liu also revealed that Foxconn uses AI to design factories by employing Nvidiaâs Omniverse tool to create a digital twin â even before it has a physical factory to simulate. An AI then virtually operates the digital twin, producing optimization suggestions that are later modelled in the digital twin. Once Foxconn feels this process has produced an optimized design it starts to build in the real world.
Foxconn can already use robots to build robots, a feat that Liu seemed to find wondrous.
EV platform revving up
Liu also mentioned Foxconnâs plans to enter the automotive market with a reference design for an electric vehicle.
He told the Computex crowd that Foxconn uses this approach when working with PC vendors, who take its designs and tweak them to create custom products.
âA good reference design saves a lot of time and improves time to market and cost for our customers,â he said, citing an 80 percent reduction in the work required to create new models. âPlease stay tuned for this new EV announcement,â he said. ®