Surging investment in artificial intelligence is giving the US an early advantage in the race to dominate a new era of robotics, according to investors and experts in an industry that is set to become one of the most strategically important.
Recent advances in AI, particularly in a technique known as deep learning, have shifted robotics from its core industrial market into areas such as self-driving cars, fuelling debate over the benefits and threats posed by the rise of the robots.
As the technology extends its reach beyond factory production lines, the US and China are poised to take the lead from Japan and Germany, which dominate traditional industrial robotics.