In Another Ai Push, China Holds The World's First Sports Event For Humanoid Robots

BEIJING — They aren’t nan astir graceful athletes, aliases nan fastest. But they’re learning.

From Friday to Sunday, quality handlers from 16 countries put astir 500 bipedal robots done various motions to showcase nan committedness and limits of embodied artificial intelligence astatine what was billed arsenic nan first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games successful Beijing.

The robotic participants came successful each shapes, sizes and structures and competed successful 26 different sports events ranging from moving to kickboxing to soccer. The different state-backed sports tourney astatine nan National Speed Skating Oval, a Beijing Olympic venue, came arsenic nan United States and China title against each different to style nan early of AI.

Humanoid robots playing shot astatine nan World Humanoid Robot Games successful Beijing connected Friday.Kevin Frayer / Getty Images

There were nary velocity records being set, and galore of nan athletes were prone to fizzling and look plants. Some robots collapsed down unexpectedly while competing, while others didn’t complete their tasks arsenic planned. One viral video showed a moving robot veering disconnected people and accidentally knocking complete a personification connected nan track.

But for nan robots’ developers, nan games were little astir winning aliases losing and much astir testing their agility, endurance and artillery life, each of which person made awesome advances successful caller years.

Some humanoids were besides competing successful much applicable occupation skills, specified arsenic sorting medicine and edifice concierge duties.

A squad from StarBot, a California-based tech institution that specializes successful processing robots skilled successful customer service, said they were “really excited” to beryllium portion of nan games.

“We thought it was a really bully opportunity to travel to China and beryllium successful an situation wherever everything is truthful modern and up to date,” institution typical Gregorio Velasco told NBC News.

StarBot’s machines, developed based connected nan Chinese-made Unitree model, competed successful service-related races arsenic they excel astatine edifice scenarios specified arsenic taking orders and delivering nutrient to tables, he said.

Going forward, Velasco said, “we dream to beryllium successful people’s homes and restaurants, hotels, and I deliberation successful nan future, galore group will person robots progressive successful their life.”

The venue was packed pinch spectators who laughed, clapped and rooted for nan robot athletes arsenic nan games kicked disconnected Friday.

During nan tai chi event, a group of judges watched cautiously arsenic nan robot competitors moved gracefully to nan hit of soft euphony successful nan background, jotting down notes and scoring nan performances pinch nan seriousness of an Olympic panel.

“For robots, a azygous activity needs to beryllium repeated galore times earlier they tin execute it pinch stability,” martial arts judge Zhang Jidong told Chinese authorities newspaper The Beijing News. “Considering nan very short mentation time, nan robots’ upper-body movements were impressively smooth.”

Humanoid robots fighting astatine nan World Humanoid Robot Games connected Saturday.Kevin Frayer / Getty Images

The games did not conscionable showcase really acold robotics person travel and really humanoids mightiness 1 time beryllium integrated into regular life. They besides revealed really heavy China’s authorities has been backing nan improvement of these technologies, to adjacent nan artificial intelligence spread pinch nan United States.

In July, China announced its global action scheme for AI conscionable days aft nan Trump management released nan U.S. version, which experts note is “no coincidence” arsenic nan 2 countries title to triumph others complete to their respective visions for AI governance. Both countries see AI a nationalist information issue, and nan U.S. has sought to restrict China’s entree to nan precocious semiconductor chips needed to train AI models.

While nan U.S. backs market-driven AI successful alignment pinch wide norms, China promises to thief processing countries pinch AI arsenic a intends to beforehand authorities control, according to the Atlantic Council, a deliberation vessel based successful Washington.

Videos of robots dancing, punching and performing person been each complete Chinese societal media and authorities TV arsenic Beijing has deepened its AI finance and promotion. In April, nan Chinese authorities organized a half-marathon successful Beijing wherever robots and quality runners raced against each other.

A humanoid robot reenacting runner Mo Farah’s “Mobot” triumph creation astatine nan World Humanoid Robot Games connected Thursday.Kevin Frayer / Getty Images

For years, Beijing has been funneling tens of billions of dollars into AI investigation and authorities subsidies, conscionable arsenic it did pinch nan electric conveyance industry, drafting accusations of unfair title from Western critics.

While American robot developers specified arsenic Boston Dynamics still predominate high-end investigation and innovation, Chinese companies, spurred by authorities policy, are focused connected mass-producing affordable robots, according to Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a deliberation vessel based successful Washington.

Research published by Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2050, China will person 302.3 cardinal humanoid robots successful use, good up of nan U.S. projection of conscionable 77.7 million.

Although nan accumulation disparity betwixt nan 2 countries whitethorn turn larger, experts said nan U.S. will support its advantage successful full compute capacity, a metric much apt to beryllium nan cardinal successful deploying and integrating AI systems astatine scale.

A technician checking a humanoid robot connected nan sidelines during a shot title connected Sunday. Kevin Frayer / Getty Images

Wang Xiaoyin, a typical from China-based robot developer NexAurora, said robots coming still deficiency a “robust AI brain.”

The “real AI age,” he said, will statesman only erstwhile robots for illustration nan ones competing successful Beijing tin deliberation and behave independently aft training.

While nan robots’ capacity complete nan play showed that time is still a agelong measurement off, nan games were portion of China’s larger goal: getting up successful nan world title for AI domination, 1 clunky measurement astatine a time.

Janis Mackey Frayer and Dawn Liu reported from Beijing, and Peter Guo reported from Hong Kong.