A Quick left hook, a front kick at the chest, a few growing strokes and the crowd applauds. But these are not prowess that concludes the match. It is a round kick attempt that completely lacks its target, sending the kickboxer of a high -level academic team to speech.
While traditional kickboxing is accompanied by the risk of blood, sweat and serious head injuries, the competitors of the Friday match in the inaugural humanoid robot games in Beijing were confronted with a set different from challenges. The balance, the lifespan of the battery and a feeling of philosophical purpose by being among them.
Kickboxers, humanoid robots the size of a pint, entered by teams from the main Chinese technological universities, are part of a ham of humanoid events that take place during the last Chinese technological event. After spectators of 12,000 -seat national skating skating oval, built for the 2022 winter Olympic Games, represented the Chinese national anthem on Friday morning, the games supported by the government began.
“I came here out of curiosity,” said Hong Yun, a 58 -year -old retired engineer, sat in the front row. Seeing the robot race was “much more exciting than seeing real humans,” added Hong.
The games exhibited the prowess of China in humanoid robotics, a technological field which was pushed to the forefront of the country’s artificial intelligence industry. The braking machine is in full swing.
In addition to kickboxing, the humanoids participated in athletics, football and dance competitions. A robot had to abandon the 1500 meters because its head flew halfway through the route. “Keeping (the head) balanced during his movement is the biggest challenge for us,” said Wang Ziyi, a 19 -year -old student from Beijing Union University, who was part of the team who entered the robot.
Since a troop of humanoid dance robots has gone on stage during the Gala of the Spring 2025 festival, a television celebration of the lunar New Year visualized almost 17 billion times online, Beijing has enthusiastically pushed the adoption of “embodied AI” – an industry that was entered in the government’s report this year.
Events adapted to social media reflect a more serious geopolitical reality: an intensive American-Chinese-Chinese technological competition which could reshape the borders of AI.
Technology has become a lightning rod for relations between the two countries. And while the United States still has the heads of border research, partly due to Washington restrictions on the export of peak fleas to China, Beijing goes all on real applications, such as robotics.
Several cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have established funds from the robotics industry of 10 billion yuan (1 billion pounds sterling). In January, the China State Bank announced plans for a 1tn yuan of financial support for the AI industry over the next five years.
“If there is an area where (Beijing) thinks that China is ahead or could be positioned as a world leader, then they really want to draw attention to this field,” said Dr. Kyle Chan, researcher at Princeton University.
There is something strangely disturbing to see human -type jerky robots with two arms, two legs and virgin heads trailled out of the ring to be recharged by their human managers.
Regarding humanoids, Chinese industry has many advantages. Although American companies such as Tesla and Boston Dynamics are always considered as global market managers, several Chinese companies such as Ubtech and Uniree Robotics – who provided boxing robots in Friday games – catches up.
Tesla relies on China for many documents necessary to build the physical humanoids of the company. The American investment bank Morgan Stanley estimates that the supply chains in China produce robots at a third of the cost of non -Chinese suppliers. “It seems to be very difficult to decline entirely from China in this space,” wrote Sheng Zhong, the chief of the bank China Industrials Research, in a recent note.
In addition to generating positive advertising on social networks, China considers humanoids as part of the solution to the problems created by the aging population of the country and the reduction of staff. A recent article in People’s Daily, a spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party, said robots could offer practical and emotional support to the elderly. “The vision of care for the elderly assisted by Robot is not far away,” he said. Humanoid robots could also replace employees on factory lines while China is trying to recycle and redeploy its workforce in addition to high -tech jobs.
But for all the media threshing, there is a big gap between the humanoids that stumble on football balls and the manipulation reliably of daily tasks. Another leap interaction with vulnerable with vulnerable people would be. “The house is probably one of the last places where you will find a humanoid robot due to security,” said Chan. “My general point of view on the whole humanoid explosion … is honestly a little skepticism.”
Two of the biggest obstacles to useful technology outside of public relations cascades are the complexity of the environment built by humans and the hands necessary to browse there.
While other forms of AI, such as large languages models, can be formed using digital data, there are much smaller data sets available to form an algorithm on how to cover crowded restaurants or high and bottom stolen. Although China’s efforts to get robots out in the real world can help companies harvest more data, it is always a big bottleneck in the industry, Chan said.
Dr. Jonathan Aitken, professor of robotics at the University of Sheffield, accepted. “The state of the AI is far from seeing humanoids operate in uncontrolled environments,” he said.
And while the skipping robots and the kicks seem impressive, trivial daily tasks such as handling a kitchen knife or folding laundry require dixters, a skill technology has not yet cracked. A human hand has around 27 “degrees of freedom”-that is to say independent movements in space. Optimus Humanoid from Tesla, one of the most advanced models on the market, has 22.
However, China has already beaten the chances with regard to turbocharged advances. Only 10 years ago, the country exported less than 375,000 cars per year. Now China is the largest automotive supplier in the world, sending nearly 6 million vehicles per year. The European Union has increased prices on electric vehicles built in Chinese in order to resolve the flow.
In China, political and public will is firmly at the origin of humanoids. On Friday, Zhan Guangtao came to the Humanoid Games with his two daughters, after the school of his eldest child gave them free tickets. “It’s good to have my children in contact with the most advanced robotics in the world,” said Zhan. “Exposing them to high technology will expand their horizons.”
Additional research by Lillian Yang
