China offers media preview of robot games to be held in mid-Aug.
Five humanoid robots, each from Tsinghua University and China Agricultural University in Beijing, took part in a football training session at the National Speed Skating Oval, a venue from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The artificial intelligence-powered robots were fully autonomous, able to get back on their feet after being knocked down while chasing the ball. All were developed by Booster Robotics, a Beijing-based startup.
Yang Shaoshuai of the China Agricultural University team told reporters he believes the humanoids' current football skills are "probably comparable to those of a 5- to 6-year-old child," but said they are developing "very rapidly."
Other robotic football demonstrations at the Beijing venue featured teams from the Netherlands and Portugal. The World Humanoid Robot Sports Games will include around 20 events, including track and field, gymnastics and dance.
Zhao Dongwei of the Beijing robot games organizing committee said the United States will be among the countries taking part in the competition, adding that the event aims to "accelerate international cooperation" in the field of robotics.
China has been eager to promote the development of cutting-edge products, including humanoid robots, amid its intensifying tech rivalry with the United States.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
6 hours ago
- Japan Today
WhatsApp takes down 6.8 million accounts linked to criminal scam centers, Meta says
WhatsApp has taken down 6.8 million accounts that were 'linked to criminal scam centers' targeting people online around that world, its parent company Meta said this week. The account deletions, which Meta said took place over the first six months of the year, arrive as part of wider company efforts to crack down on scams. In a Tuesday announcement, Meta said it was also rolling new tools on WhatsApp to help people spot scams — including a new safety overview that the platform will show when someone who is not in a user's contacts adds them to a group, as well as ongoing test alerts to pause before responding. Scams are becoming all too common and increasingly sophisticated in today's digital world — with too-good-to-be-true offers and unsolicited messages attempting to steal consumers' information or money filling our phones, social media and other corners of the internet each day. Meta noted that 'some of the most prolific' sources of scams are criminal scam centers, which often span from forced labor operated by organized crime — and warned that such efforts often target people on many platforms at once, in attempts to evade detection. That means that a scam campaign may start with messages over text or a dating app, for example, and then move to social media and payment platforms, the California-based company said. Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, pointed to recent scam efforts that it said attempted to use its own apps — as well as TikTok, Telegram and AI-generated messages made using ChatGPT — to offer payments for fake likes, enlist people into a pyramid scheme and/or lure others into cryptocurrency investments. Meta linked these scams to a criminal scam center in Cambodia — and said it disrupted the campaign in partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
6 hours ago
- Japan Today
U.S. government gets a year of ChatGPT Enterprise for $1
OpenAI is working to put its artificial intelligence technology to work for countries around the world, entrenching it in systems before rivals such as DeepSeek can get footholds OpenAI on Wednesday said it was letting the U.S. government use a version of ChatGPT designed for businesses for a year, charging just $1 for the service. Federal workers in the executive branch will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise in a partnership with the U.S. General Services Administration, according to the pioneering San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) company. "By giving government employees access to powerful, secure AI tools, we can help them solve problems for more people, faster," OpenAI said in a blog post announcing the alliance. ChatGPT Enterprise does not use business data to train or improve OpenAI models and the same rule will apply to federal use, according to the company. Earlier this year, OpenAI announced an initiative focused on bringing advanced AI tools to U.S. government workers. The news came with word that the U.S. Department of Defense awarded OpenAI a $200 million contract to put generative AI to work for the military. OpenAI planned to show how cutting-edge AI can improve administrative operations, such as how service members get health care, and also has cyber defense applications, the startup said in a post. OpenAI has also launched an initiative to help countries build their own AI infrastructure, with the U.S. government a partner in projects. The tech firm's move to put its technology at the heart of national AI platforms around the world comes as it faces competition from Chinese rival DeepSeek. DeepSeek's success in delivering powerful AI models at a lower cost has rattled Silicon Valley and multiplied calls for U.S. big tech to protect its dominance of the emerging technology. The OpenAI for Countries initiative was launched in June under the auspices of a drive -- dubbed "Stargate" -- announced by U.S. President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States. OpenAI, in "coordination" with the U.S. government, will help countries build data centers and provide customized versions of ChatGPT, according to the tech firm. Projects are to involve "local as well as OpenAI capital." © 2025 AFP
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Curling champion Constantini set to throw rocks at 'special' hometown Games
In exactly six months' time the spotlight will shine on the tiny Alpine town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, which along with the city of Milan will be staging the Winter Olympics. The Games also took place in the resort in 1956 but for Cortina native and Olympic champion curler Stefania Constantini, the 2026 edition promises to be extra special. "I think it will be a really big event in a really little mountain village," Constantini said by video call.
