Because of the reported low birth rate in the country, China now unveils its breakthrough in AI technology- a robot babysitter. 

Created from Artificial Intelligence (AI), the robot monitors and cares for human embryos growing in artificial wombs. The work has been done by scientists at the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology in eastern China. What they did was to develop robots that perform tasks, such as observing, documenting, and manually adjusting carbon dioxide, nutrients, and more in embryos.

The robot can rank human embryos based on their developmental potential. The research paper is published in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering and describes how robotic babysitters have been used to nurture animal embryos in an artificial womb environment. The paper states:

“This technology will not only help to better understand the origin of life and development of the human embryo but also provide a theoretical basis for solving the problem of birth defects and other major reproductive health problems.”

A South China Morning Post explains that an artificial womb is developed to ensure that fetuses are growing safely, developing, and growing in. A robotic or AI nanny, on the other hand, is created to take care of the fetus inside that womb.

Chinese scientists have proven that the technology is safe for embryo development, however, international law prohibits experimental studies on human embryos after two weeks of development. Despite this fact, more thorough research is important because there are still a lot of unsolved mysteries about the development of the typical human embryo.

The first time a primate embryo has gone this far outside the mother’s body was back in 2019 when researchers from the Institute of Zoology in Beijing brought fertilized monkey eggs to the stage of synthetic internal organ formation.

That same year, scientists in the Netherlands officially stated that within 10 years they had built an artificial womb that saved premature babies.