Time to drink to robot revolution

At a large wine chateau in the region of Bordeaux, France, busy robots use artificial intelligence and other technologies to pick and screen grapes as well as make wine.

The chateau might be the world's first such facility to use AI to improve and optimize grape planting and wine brewing, said Zhou Jinting, chairman of Shanghai Hefu Holding (Group) Co Ltd, at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last month.

Hefu bought the chateau last year. Zhou said he believes the rapid development of AI, robotics, intelligent machines, big data and cloud computing will bring revolutionary changes to the wine industry as well as a wide range of traditional industries.