Abstract: As an important application of artificial intelligence, the use of industrial robots is conducive to the steady growth of manufacturing industry. Based on the data of China's manufacturing industry and CRIA忆s industrial robot provincial panel, the empirical study finds that: for every 1% increase in the use of industrial robots, the average growth of manufacturing output value is 0.6%; even considering the "inertia" effect of economic growth, the impact of industrial robots also reaches 0.1% to 0.4%. Furthermore, in order to verify whether the use of industrial robots has the same phenomenon of diminishing marginal returns like traditional factor inputs, the paper constructs a panel threshold model. The regression results show that, compared with the diminishing marginal returns of traditional factor inputs, industrial robots at this stage will bring the continuous growth of manufacturing output, and will not see diminishing marginal returns. Therefore, accelerating the development of artificial intelligence technology is conducive to promoting sustained economic growth. Finally, some policy suggestions are put forward.

Key words: technological progress, industrial robots, artificial intelligence, manufacturing growth