A Robot Will Collect Your Debt, China Real Estate Goes Virtual

Robots are now 90% as effective as humans at collecting debts, China’s real estate is being mapped in 3D for full virtual reality tours at scale, and the Chinese automotive industry is going on the blockchain to eliminate almost all inefficiency. This Week In China Tech is your way to stay on top of the tech stories that matter most from China each and every week. Here are the headlines you need to know. There are plenty of artificial intelligence (AI) trends emerging from China these days, but arguably the most intriguing are those that show just how close humans are to meeting their match at the hands of machines. This week, we saw 100Credit, a big data platform company, has launched a low-cost robot called "Little 100Credit" that reportedly collects bad debts over the phone 90% as often as its human counterparts . Yes, a robot calls up customers who owe money and helps people repay their debts almost as well as a human. China's largest real estate website 58 Group announced (article in Chinese) an investment into 123KanFang, a Chinese producer of low-cost 3D modeling technology provider. 58 Group has determined that many customers hate having to go see dozens of apartments or homes before deciding what to buy or lease. The ability to view real estate in 3D from the comfort of your home or a real estate office has long been promised, but the technology to accurately map a space in 3D is expensive and usually requires a professional photographer. That's no longer the case. 123 KanFang’s 3D mapping solution is relatively low-cost, as it only requires a real estate agent equipped with a smartphone app and a 3D camera costing about $150.