请看《金融时报》的详细报道：
It has been a while since humanoids stepped out of the pages of sci-fi writer Philip K Dick. Sophia, the work of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, debuted in 2016 and gained (Saudi) citizenship a year later. Tesla’s Elon Musk plans to have his humanoids manning production lines next year.
人形机器人走出科幻作家菲利普•迪克(Philip K Dick)的书页已经有一段时间了。由总部位于香港的汉森机器人公司(Hanson Robotics)研发的索菲娅于2016年首次亮相，并在一年后获得了沙特公民身份。特斯拉(Tesla)的埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)计划明年让他的人形机器人负责生产线。
Viewed from the C-suite, there is a lot to like. Human robots do not get sick, require pensions or join unions. Health and safety departments need not fret about how much stooping and carrying they do. There are no pesky demands to work from home either.
从高管层的角度来看，有很多值得喜欢的地方。人形机器人不会生病，不需要养老金，也不会加入工会。健康和安全部门不必担心他们的弯腰和搬运工作量。也没有烦人的居家办公要求。
Strength, dexterity and a total lack of squeamishness make them useful across industries, from burger-flipping in eateries to bed-bathing in hospitals. Laser-sharp precision, not to mention an absence of toilet breaks, makes them perfect factory fodder.
力量、灵巧和完全不怕脏的特性使它们在各个行业中都很有用，从餐馆的汉堡翻转到医院的床上洗浴。激光般的精确度，更不用说不需要上厕所的休息时间，使它们成为理想的工厂劳动力。
第一，学习fodder的用法。这个词做名词，表示something or someone that is useful only for a particular purpose – used to show disapproval，〔特定用途的〕素材〔含贬义〕，例：The murders made prime fodder for newspapers. 这些凶杀案成了报纸的主要素材。
第二，学习fret的用法。这个词做不及物动词，表示to worry about something, especially when there is no need，〔尤指不必要地〕烦恼，发愁，例：Don’t fret – everything will be all right. 别担心——一切都会好的。
第三，学习dexterity的用法。这个词做名词，表示skill and speed in doing something with your hands，〔手的〕敏捷，灵巧，熟练，例：Computer games can improve children’s manual dexterity. 电脑游戏可以提高儿童手的灵活性。
All told, Citibank analysts reckon there could be 648mn humanoids by 2040. That is four times the size of today’s US workforce but still looks modest beside predictions from futuristic devotees such as tech entrepreneur David Holz, who puts the number at 1bn, and Musk, who concurs.
总而言之，花旗银行的分析师认为，到2040年可能会有6.48亿个人形机器人。这一数字是今天美国劳动力规模的四倍，但与未来主义者如科技企业家大卫•霍尔茨(David Holz)和马斯克的预测相比仍显得温和，霍尔茨预计这个数字将达到10亿，马斯克也表示赞同。
Payback is swift. Even on a $35,000 price tag and (US) minimum hourly wage of $7.25, upfront costs — based on a 96-hour working week — are recouped in under a year, says Citi. Raise that to a $16 hourly wage and it only takes a few months.
回本速度很快。花旗银行(Citi)表示，即使以3.5万美元的价格和美国最低时薪7.25美元计算，基于每周工作96小时的前期成本也能在不到一年内收回。如果将时薪提高到16美元，只需几个月即可回本。
Like their flesh-and-blood peers, humanoids will learn as they go. Large language models, as used in AI, are the easy bit. Teaching behaviour is a newer science. But Toyota Research Institute, for instance, is championing large behaviour models. So far, it has used demonstrations to “teach” robots more than 500 skills.
与人类工人一样，人形机器人将在实践中学习。用于人工智能的大型语言模型是相对简单的部分。行为教学则是一门较新的科学。然而，丰田研究院(Toyota Research Institute)正在倡导大型行为模型。到目前为止，它已经通过示范“教授”机器人超过500种技能。
第一，学习devotee的用法。这个词做名词，表示someone who enjoys or admires someone or something very much，仰慕者，敬仰者，爱好者，例：a devotee of 1930s films 20世纪30年代电影的爱好者
第二，学习recoup的用法。这个词做及物动词，表示to get back an amount of money you have lost or spent，重新获得，收回〔失去或花掉的钱〕，例：The movie will have to be a huge hit to recoup its cost. 这部电影必须大获成功才能收回成本。
第三，学习your own flesh and blood的用法。这个词组表示someone who is part of your family，亲人，亲骨肉，例：How can he treat his own flesh and blood that way? 他怎么能那样对待自己的至亲骨肉？
What could go wrong? Red tape for starters. Regulators, ethicists and nation-states will be all over this from every conceivable angle — data privacy, labour and national security among them.
可能会出现什么问题呢？首先是纷繁的规章制度。监管机构、伦理学家和国家将从各个可能的角度关注这一问题，包括数据隐私、劳动力和国家安全等。
Costs could mount when downtime for charging and maintenance is factored in. Agility Robotics’ humanoids, already busy on Amazon shop floors, require one hour of charging for every two they work. The company is working to lift that ratio to one to four next year; its next version will operate on 1:10. Still, that is a lot of tea breaks.
当将充电和维护的停机时间考虑在内时，成本可能会增加。Agility机器人的人形机器人已经在亚马逊(Amazon)的车间里忙碌，每工作两小时需要充电一小时。该公司正努力在明年将这一比例提高到一比四；其下一版本将实现一比十。不过，这仍然意味着很多的茶歇时间。
Maintenance costs are about 20 per cent of total cost annually. Upgrades are not simply software but will affect hardware too, such as sensors, mobility functions and weight-bearing capabilities. Lifespans in a nascent industry are hard to judge but will probably be closer to cars than humans, maybe about 10 to 15 years.
维护成本约占每年总成本的20%。升级不仅涉及软件，还会影响硬件，例如传感器、移动功能和承重能力。在一个新兴行业中，寿命难以判断，但可能更接近汽车而非人类，约为10到15年。
第一，学习red tape的用法。这个词组表示official rules that seem unnecessary and prevent things from being done quickly and easily，繁琐费时的手续；繁文缛节，例：a procedure surrounded by bureaucracy and red tape 充斥着官僚作风和繁文缛节的程序
第二，学习downtime的用法。这个词做名词，表示the time when a computer is not working，〔计算机的〕停机时间。也可表示a period of time when you have finished what you were doing, and you can relax or do something that you had not originally planned to do，〔完成工作后的〕自由支配时间，例：Often, during semesters, you have down time when you can do some exercise. 学期当中常常会有可供自由支配的时间来进行锻炼。
第三，学习nascent的用法。这个词做形容词，表示coming into existence or starting to develop，初生的，新生的；开始发展的，例：the country’s nascent democracy 该国新生的民主
Perhaps the biggest issue is application. Industry, healthcare and logistics all offer scope for robots able to sense, think and react — matching the barcode, say, for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and packing it in the appropriate-sized box up in a fulfilment centre. Less obvious, however, is whether these robots really need to be bipedal and designed with Hollywood rather than out-of-town warehouses in mind.
也许最大的问题在于应用。工业、医疗和物流领域都为能够感知、思考和反应的机器人提供了广阔的空间——例如，在履行中心中，将《仿生人会梦见电子羊吗？》的条形码匹配并装入合适大小的箱子。然而，不太明显的是，这些机器人是否真的需要两足行走，并且在设计时考虑的是好莱坞，而不是城外的仓库。
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