No humans needed, 24x7 operations: Xiaomi's futuristic factory is viral but it might be only half true

There is a video viral on social media suggesting that Xiaomi has a factory where there are no humans and where only robots work on making its phones and appliances, sometimes in total darkness. Xiaomi does have such a factory but that video is surely not real.

If you closely follow tech news on social media, chances are you might have come across a video claiming to show Xiaomi’s fully automated smartphone factory. The clip, widely shared across X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, claims that the Chinese tech giant has just launched a futuristic facility that runs 24x7, operates in complete darkness because it is entirely run by robots that need no light to see, employs no production workers, and manufactures one smartphone every second.

The posts also claim that the video is that of a Xiaomi factory in Changping near Beijing and that it is a large factory spread in around 81000 square meters. In the video, robotic arms can be seen assembling devices, automated vehicles transport components across factory floors, and machines appear to coordinate production with little or no human involvement. These clips are going viral, with people debating whether machines taking over human jobs is finally becoming a reality.

The only problem? This is not a video from a real factory. Instead, it is a concept video that Xiaomi showed in 2020. The company had released these videos to demonstrate the potential of automation, rather than to confirm the existence of a fully autonomous, human-free production facility operating at scale.

Somehow the video, which is available on YouTube, has become viral now. The reason seems to be the upcoming job crisis sparked by AI. While white-collar jobs are already at risk due to AI, people probably latched on to the old Xiaomi video to highlight that even blue-collar factory jobs are not safe in the era of AI and robots.

Now, if the viral video is a mashup of clips from the six-year-old concept video, what about the existence of Xiaomi’s dark factory? There is no clarity because such a factory probably does exist, only that it is unlikely to be as dark or as automated as shown in the concept video.

Instead, to understand what could be this Xiaomi factory — inhabited by robots and using automated production processes — we need to see another video that Xiaomi released in 2023.