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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="575" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-820x575.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-485012" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-820x575.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-300x210.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-128x90.jpeg 128w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-768x539.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-1536x1078.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107374281-1708014467967-gettyimages-2005544457-75350394-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



The U.K. economy has emerged from recession as gross domestic product rose 0.6% in the first quarter, official figures showed Friday, beating expectations.



Economists polled by Reuters had forecast growth of 0.4% on the previous three months of the year.



The U.K. entered a shallow recession in the second half of 2023, as persistent inflation continued to hurt the economy.



Although there is no official definition of a recession, two straight quarters of negative growth is widely considered a technical recession.



The U.K.’s production sector expanded by 0.8% in the period from January to March, while construction fell by 0.9%. On a monthly basis, the economy grew by 0.4% in March, following 0.2% expansion in February.



In output terms, the services sector — crucial to the U.K. economy — grew for the first time since the first quarter in 2023, the Office for National Statistics said. The 0.7% growth was mainly driven by the transport services industry which saw its highest quarterly growth rate since 2020.



U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative Party recently suffered significant losses at local elections, welcomed the news. “The economy has turned a corner,” he said in a post on social media platform X.



“We know things are still tough for many people, but the plan is working, and we must stick to it,” Sunak added.



Suren Thiru, economics director at ICAEW, a professional group for chartered accountants, struck a more measured tone. He said the positive impact of weaker inflation could be curtailed by a renewed caution to spend amid political uncertainty ahead of general elections expected later this year.



“The UK’s escape from recession is a rather hollow victory because the big picture remains one of an economy struggling with stagnation, as poor productivity and high economic inactivity limits our growth potential,” said Thiru.



The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday warned that indicators of persistent inflation “remain elevated,” and voted to keep its main interest rate at 5.25%.



The central bank forecast headline inflation close to 2% in the near-term, but said it expects an increase slightly later in the year as the effects of a sharp fall in energy prices wear off.

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-820x461.png" alt="" class="wp-image-484270" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-820x461.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-300x169.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-160x90.png 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-768x432.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics shows off one of its humanoid robots. Limx Dynamics</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING — ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence is speeding up research and bringing humanoid robots closer to reality in China, home to many of the world’s factories.



AI has been around for decades. What’s changed with the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot is the ability of AI to better understand and generate content in a human-like way. While the U.S.-based tech is not officially available in China, local companies such as Baidu have released similar chatbots and AI models.



In robotics, the development of generative AI can help machines with understanding and perceiving their environment, said Li Zhang, chief operating officer of Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics.



About three months after joining the two-year-old startup, Li said he shortened his expectations for how long it would take LimX to produce a humanoid robot capable of not just factory work, but also helping out in a households.



Li originally expected the entire process to take eight to ten years, but now anticipates some use cases will be ready in five to seven years. “After working for a few months, I saw how various tools’ abilities were improved because of AI,” he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.



“It has accelerated our entire research and development cycle,” he said.



Companies are rushing into the opportunity. OpenAI itself is backing humanoid robot startups, while Elon Musk’s Tesla is developing its own, called Optimus.



Electric car giant BYD last year invested in Shanghai-based Agibot just months after its founding, according to PitchBook.



And at a high level, Chinese state media in November published a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping watching a humanoid robot at an exhibition center during his first trip to Shanghai since the pandemic. The robot was developed by Fourier Intelligence.



Before humanoid robots reach households, as LimX ultimately intends, factories can be a lucrative, enclosed scenario in which to deploy them.



China surpassed Japan in 2013 as the world’s largest installer of industrial robots, and now accounts for more than 50% of the global total, according to Stanford’s latest AI Index report.



Electronics, automotive and metal and machinery were the three leading sectors for industrial robot installation in China, the report said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-impact-on-human-jobs"><a></a>Impact on human jobs</h2>



When it comes fully replacing human workers, however, AI advancements alone aren’t enough.



Even if AI allows a robot to think and make decisions on par with humans, mechanical limitations are a major reason why humanoids can’t yet replace human laborers, LimX’s Li said.



One of LimX’s backers, Future Capital, has also invested in a company called Pan Motor that specializes in motors for humanoids.



Generative AI doesn’t directly help with robotic motion, pointed out Eric Xia, partner at Future Capital, an investor in LimX. But “advances in large language models can help humanoid robots with advanced task planning,” he said in Chinese, translated by CNBC.



LimX’s other investors include Lenovo Capital.



A shift toward factory robots can accelerate, once the cost-per-robot comes down.



Steve Hoffman, chairman of a startup accelerator called Founders Space, said he is working with a Chinese startup called Fastra, which he expects can begin mass robot production in one year. He said he spent time in China this year teaching local businesses how to integrate generative AI.



“We have already received six orders from research institutions,” he said, noting the startup aims to lower the cost per robot to between $50,000 to $100,000 by rollout.



“If we can hit a $50,000 price point, we can sell a lot of robots,” he said, pointing out the robots’ batteries can be charged as they work, 24 hours a day. “Could pay for the robot in a year.”



In pharmaceutical research, generative AI can reduce costs, without cutting into human labor.



“You don’t save costs in our business by having less people. You actually save costs by making fewer experiments that fail,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, chairman of the board, executive director and CEO of Insilico Medicine, which has offices in Hong Kong, New York and other parts of the world.



He noted how large pharmaceutical companies have typically had to spend thousands of dollars to replicate a molecule for testing — and would run a few thousand such tests per program. He claimed that with the help of AI, Insilico only needs to synthesize about 70 molecules per program.



The company published a paper in Nature in March claiming to have reached phase 2 clinical trials for an AI-generated drug.

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Gen Z are digital natives and have quickly adopted AI, using it for everything from assignment research to planning holidays.



But, it seems, they’ve been making mistakes along the way.



Shoshana Davis, a Gen Z career expert and founder of the career consultancy Fairy Job Mother, told CNBC Make It in an interview that the generation (generally defined as those born between 1996 and 2012) have become too reliant on AI tools like ChatGPT to generate cover letters and job application answers.



“So I speak to businesses and employers who hire anything from like 10 to 1000s of Gen Z every year,” Davis said. “And one of the main challenges that I’m seeing at the moment is the use of AI, specifically ChatGPT, and it’s not being used in the right way, and it’s not being used effectively.”



Davis explained that “employers are getting hundreds of the exact same cover letters word for word,” or answers to job application questions that are the same, and suspect that ChatGPT use is in play.



In fact, 45% of job seekers have used AI to build, update, or improve their resume, a Canva survey published in January of 5,000 hiring managers and 5,000 job seekers from the U.K., U.S., India, Germany, Spain, France, Mexico and Brazil found.



And it appears that Gen Z is leaning the most on AI, according to a February Grammarly survey of 1,002 knowledge workers and 253 business leaders. It reported that 61% of Gen Z said they can’t imagine doing work tasks without using generative AI ­— the most out of any of the generations.



Davis said that we should definitely “embrace technology and AI” but said copying answers from ChatGPT can hurt your chances of getting a job.



A Resume Genius survey of 625 hiring managers found that over half disliked AI-generated resumes and would consider it a red flag that would make them less likely to hire a candidate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-100-identical-responses">’100 identical responses’</h2>



One of the reasons why copying ChatGPT’s responses is an ineffective way of using AI is that the chatbot does not always provide reliable information.



One initial issue with ChatGPT was that its knowledge base was limited to data released before September 2021 but this was resolved in September 2023, its owner OpenAI announced on X.



“ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, and it can occasionally produce incorrect answers,” it says on the company website. “It has limited knowledge of world and events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”



Davis shared a recent story from an employer she works with who was hiring for a brand marketing position, and asked a question in the job application about candidates’ favorite fitness-related product launches in the past year.



“They said they got about 100 identical responses of ‘my favorite campaign launch was Peloton’ and the employer was like ‘ultimately that was ChatGPT, but then also equally Peloton was released like four or five years ago’,” Davis said. The employer was referring to an ad campaign from Peloton in 2020.



Davis said that young people “need to educate themselves” on how to use ChatGPT properly and not just to copy answers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘It should be used as a tool, not a replacement’</h2>



There are several uses for AI in the job application process from helping you prep for interviews or researching a company.  



“In my opinion, you can use ChatGPT in the job search process but it should be used as a tool, not a replacement,” Davis warned.



Michelle Reisdorf, district director at recruitment firm Robert Half, shared a similar view with CNBC Make It previously and said that AI is great for “proofreading and enhancing what you’ve already written but it’s not a one-stop shop to generate the perfect resume.”



Reisdorf added: “Recruiters will be able to tell if you’re not including specific details from your past jobs or writing in a personal, human voice.”&nbsp;



Davis said she uses ChatGPT to help her structure documents, brainstorm ideas, and produce drafts but “I never just type in a question and then copy and paste my responses.”

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