Latest news with #SpringFestivalGala
NDTV
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Watch: In A World-First, Humanoid Robots Battle It Out In Chinese Kick-Boxing Match
In a world-first event, humanoid robots took centre stage in a kick-boxing competition held in Hangzhou, China. The robots, developed by Unitree Robotics, faced off in a thrilling match that drew a crowd of fascinated onlookers, BBC reported. As part of the China Media Group World Robot Competition, the robots demonstrated their agility and combat capabilities in both exhibition fights and competitive matches. The robots traded punches and kicks with impressive precision, highlighting the rapid advancements being made in robotics and AI. Watch the video here: 🇨🇳 Robot gets KO'd in the world's first humanoid ROBOT FIGHTING tournament in China — Dott. Orikron 🇵🇹 (@orikron) May 25, 2025 Reacting to the video, one user wrote, "The part that confuses me most is the referee in the ring." Another commented, ''They're gonna kill us all when they see the origin story arc, aren't they?" A third said, "We laughed when robot boxing showed up in movies. Now it's here — not CGI, not props, just real metal-throwing punches." A fourth stated, "This isn't just entertainment—this is the birth of a new species. The first punches of a future that won't need us to throw them." However, a fifth user had a different perspective. "Does anyone else find this a little dumb? (1) It's the same robots fighting each other, so there's nothing different to observe from each. (2) It's nowhere near autonomous, clearly remote-controlled. I just don't see the big advancement to be excited about here," he said. Unitree Robotics' humanoid robots have been at the centre of controversy multiple times. A recent incident showed a robot lashing out at its handlers, sparking concerns about AI safety and potential risks. The CCTV footage, widely shared on social media, fueled fears about the rapid advancement of robotics and AI. In February, a robot went rogue and charged at a crowd of festival-goers at the Spring Festival Gala in Tianjin, China. Similar incidents involving AI gone wrong have made headlines, such as a robot attacking an engineer at Tesla's Texas factory. Software malfunctions have often been identified as the root cause of these incidents, emphasising the need for rigorous testing and quality control in AI development to prevent such mishaps.
Borneo Post
11-05-2025
- Business
- Borneo Post
Futuristic robots in scenic areas refresh China's tourist experience
This undated handout photo shows a tourist climbing the Taishan Mountain with the assistance of an exoskeleton robot developed by Kenqing Technology, a Shenzhen-based robotics company, in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province during the Spring Festival in 2025. (Kenqing Technology/Handout via Xinhua) BEIJING (May 12): As China's tourism industry further embraces technology, robot-assisted hikes and AI-guided sightseeing tours are among a number of futuristic travel experiences that have become increasingly common across the country. Over the recent May Day holiday — one of China's busiest travel periods each year — many tourist attractions were empowered by high-tech to offer visitors unique and immersive experiences, ranging from virtual reality equipment providing digitized tours to drones creating spectacular patterns in the sky or monitoring crowd density in scenic spots. In the Shichuan Ancient Pear Orchard — a pear blossom tourist attraction in the inland county of Gaolan, northwest China's Gansu Province — robots developed by Unitree Robotics were seen leading tourists around the orchard's iconic sights, displaying dynamic obstacle avoidance and terrain climbing skills. The technology company based in east China's Hangzhou rose to fame after its humanoid robots staged an arresting performance on China's 2025 'Spring Festival Gala' television show. Also in Gaolan, an agriculture museum saw robots interact with traditional farming tools, presenting a dialogue between ancient and modern times for visitors, and showcasing how China's ancient farming civilization has evolved to embrace modern technology. 'It was a pleasant surprise! I didn't expect to make friends with high-tech in the ancient pear orchard,' said a visitor surnamed Zhang, who experienced the cutting-edge technology firsthand by shaking hands with a robot. 'Its movements were very flexible, and it seemed to be listening intently to me. It was just like communicating with a real person,' he said. In line with the 'AI plus consumption' initiative outlined in the latest plan released by China's State Council to stimulate consumption, AI applications are now evident in many online and in-person scenarios. The tourism industry, which is generally associated with scenic views and cultural heritage, is undergoing a significant transformation with the integration of robotics and advanced technologies. One notable example of this integration is the recent use of exoskeleton robots, which have become a hit among mountain climbers in particular. The devices were met with overwhelming demand during the holiday at Mount Tai, a famed scenic area in east China's Shandong Province. 'Our exoskeleton robots were all rented every day, with some tourists waiting for up to two hours,' said Li Gang, a manager of the Taishan Cultural Tourism Group, which organizes trips to Mount Tai. The wearable, lightweight smart devices can reduce human exertion by sensing user intentions and dynamically outputting mechanical force to core body parts. They have an instant pull force capacity of 200 kilograms and an eight-hour endurance. As Mount Tai's picturesque scenery and cultural heritage unfold during the steepest sections of its hiking trails, the device can effectively ease the pains of intense exercise, cutting what should be a three-hour hike by half. Priced at 80 yuan (about 11 U.S. dollars) for three hours, the robots were fully booked in advance during the holiday, Li added. The devices can also monitor the physical condition of their wearers, and have emergency call and scenic-area guidance functions, among others. Similar robots have also debuted at other mountainous tourist attractions across multiple provincial-level regions, including Hebei, Ningxia, Anhui, Shaanxi and Jiangxi. During the five-day holiday, Chinese travelers made an estimated 314 million domestic trips. Among that number were millions who were delighted by novel AI-empowered experiences or human-machine interactions. In the economic powerhouse of Guangdong Province alone, 42 activities organized by tech firms or telecom operators and showcasing novel AI application scenarios were attended more than 2.1 million times. And the tourism industry's integration of robotics is not limited to entertainment and assistance; robots are also being utilized for safety and security purposes. In the Beijing (Tongzhou) Grand Canal Cultural Tourism Scenic Area, a four-wheeled robot named Xiaoyu is currently being tested for patrol and security inspections. Xiaoyu is able to provide timely safety alerts for tourists, and can detect smoke points and locate their source fire via its built-in thermal imaging and temperature-sensitive camera. It can also assess the health of trees and detect signs of pests or diseases. When tourists encounter an abnormal situation, they can press the SOS button on the robot's shoulder to contact the site's staff. From enhancing visitor experiences to improving safety and efficiency, these innovations are reshaping the way Chinese people travel and experience the world. The May Day holiday provided a glimpse into an exciting future in which the boundaries between humans and technology are blurred, and in which new possibilities for tourism are unlocked. A recent China News Service article quoted Guo Qiang, a sales manager at a humanoid robotics company in central China's Hunan Province, as saying that the company has received more than 100 orders from tourist attractions, which aim to task the robots to perform Tai Chi, serve tea or provide hiking assistance. 'Robots are walking into China's scenic areas on a large scale and in an explosive manner, serving as a catalyst for an upgrade of cultural tourism services,' Guo said. – Xinhua China high tech robotics tourism
NDTV
07-05-2025
- NDTV
Video: AI Robot Attacks Worker During Testing In Chinese Factory: "Machine Uprising"
A chilling incident in a Chinese factory has sparked debate after a CCTV video showed a humanoid robot lashing out at its handlers, raising concerns about the potential risks of artificial intelligence. The footage, widely shared on social media, has fueled fears about the rapid advancement of robotics and AI. In the video captured at a Chinese factory, a Unitree H1 humanoid robot suspended from a construction crane suddenly malfunctions, sparking fears about the safety and reliability of advanced robotics. The footage shows two men observing the robot's movements with caution, seemingly testing its capabilities. However, the robot abruptly loses control, wildly flailing its arms and legs in a chaotic display reminiscent of a sci-fi horror scene. As the men scramble to avoid the robot's erratic movements, it lurches forward, dragging its stand and sending a computer and other items crashing to the floor. One of the men eventually intervenes, attempting to stabilise the robot by repositioning its stand. Watch the video here: An AI robot attacks its programmers as soon as it is activated in China. — Aprajita Nefes 🦋 Ancient Believer (@aprajitanefes) May 2, 2025 The incident sparked fears of a robot uprising, with many viewers drawing parallels to the Terminator franchise, wondering if machines were on the cusp of taking over. Unitree robots have made headlines multiple times due to various incidents. In February, shocking footage captured a humanoid robot going rogue and charging at a crowd of festival-goers. The video, taken on February 9 at the Spring Festival Gala in Tianjin, northeast China, showed the robot, clad in a vibrant jacket, suddenly lunging towards a group of stunned onlookers gathered behind a barricade. There have been previous cases of rogue AI making headlines, including an instance where a robot attacked an engineer at Tesla's Texas factory. In many of these cases, software malfunctions have been identified as the underlying cause, highlighting the importance of robust testing and quality control in AI development.
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
DeepSeek. Temu. TikTok. China Tech Is Starting to Pull Ahead.
China's top leaders did not appear to fully grasp the power of artificial intelligence in July 2023, when one of us, Eric, and Henry Kissinger met them. Economic malaise hung in the air. But when the other of us, Selina, returned to China just 19 months later, the optimism was palpable. Dinner conversations were dominated by DeepSeek and other A.I. chatbots. Electric cars whizzed by, while apps offered drone food delivery. Unitree humanoid robots danced and spun handkerchiefs onstage during the 'Spring Festival Gala,' China's most-watched TV program, making the company a household name overnight. This is the country we're dealing with. China is at parity or pulling ahead of the United States in a variety of technologies, notably at the A.I. frontier. And it has developed a real edge in how it disseminates, commercializes and manufactures tech. History has shown us that those who adopt and diffuse a technology the fastest wins. So it's no surprise that China has chosen to forcefully retaliate against America's recent tariffs. To win the race for the future of technology, and in turn the war for global leadership, we must discard the belief that America is always ahead. For a long time, China was slower to the game. In 2007, the year Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's first iPhone, the internet revolution had barely begun across the Pacific: Only about 10 percent of China's population was online, while the tech giant Alibaba was still seven years away from listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The A.I. race appeared to follow the old pattern. The debut of ChatGPT in San Francisco in November 2022 led to a slew of copycat chatbots in China, most of which were estimated to be years behind. Yet, as with smartphones and electric vehicles, Silicon Valley failed to anticipate that China would find a way to swiftly develop a cheap yet state-of-the-art competitor. Today's Chinese models are very close behind U.S. versions. In fact, DeepSeek's March update to its V3 large language model is, by some benchmarks, the best non-reasoning model. The stakes of this contest are high. Leading American companies have largely been developing proprietary A.I. models and charging for access, in part because their models cost hundreds of millions of dollars to train. Chinese A.I. firms have expanded their influence by freely distributing their models for the public to use, download and modify, which makes them more accessible to researchers and developers around the world. Apps for the Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu and the social media platforms RedNote and TikTok are already among the most downloaded globally. Combine this with the continuing popularity of China's free open-source A.I. models, and it's not hard to imagine teenagers worldwide hooked on Chinese apps and A.I. companions, with autonomous Chinese-made agents organizing our lives, and businesses with services and products powered by Chinese models. In the internet revolution, Western dominance of the market helped America's digital economy swell to $2.6 trillion by 2022. That's bigger than Canada's entire G.D.P. For the United States to reap the benefits of the coming A.I. revolution, which is expected to have a larger impact than advent of the internet, the world needs to choose America's computing stack — algorithms, apps, hardware — not China's. In a dozen years, China has gone from a 'copycat nation' to a juggernaut with world-class products that have at times leapfrogged those in the West. Xiaomi — once best known as a maker of iPhone knockoffs — delivered 135,000 electric cars last year, while Apple gave up on its effort to produce an E.V. after burning $10 billion over a decade. China is now racing to deploy robots at scale, outlining plans for mass production of humanoids; in 2023, the country installed more industrial robots than all other nations combined. Along the way, the country also cultivated an abundance of STEM talent, robust supply chains, incredible manufacturing heft and a domestic ecosystem so brutally competitive that the only way to survive is to never stop iterating. This China-dominated future is already arriving — unless we get our act together. We should learn from what China has done well. The United States needs to openly share more of its A.I. technologies and research, innovate even faster and double down on diffusing A.I. throughout the economy. Despite recent cuts in research funding, the United States continues to have remarkable strengths in university and private-sector innovation. Meanwhile, China is still playing catch-up on semiconductors. Additionally, the country faces significant headwinds of its own including a real estate crisis, mounting debt and weak consumer spending. That said, we wouldn't underestimate the Chinese government's resolve in tolerating near-term economic pain in pursuit of technological supremacy. The United States imposed export controls on cutting-edge chips in order to stifle China's A.I. progress. The country's recent breakthroughs, however, illustrate that such sanctions instead fueled efforts by Chinese entrepreneurs to keep training and commercializing A.I. At lunch during Selina's trip to China, when U.S. export controls were brought up, someone joked, 'America should sanction our men's soccer team too so they will do better.' So that they will do better. It's a hard truth to swallow, but Chinese tech has become better despite constraints, as Chinese entrepreneurs have found creative ways to do more with less. So it should be no surprise that the online response in China to American tariffs has been nationalistic and surprisingly optimistic: The public is hunkering down for a battle and think time is on Beijing's side. We're no longer in the era when China is far behind us. If China's capacity to innovate endures, if its A.I. companies continue to embrace openness, and if China stays on track to take over 45 percent of all global manufacturing by 2030, then the next chapter of the A.I. race will be an all-out dogfight on every axis possible. America will need every advantage it has.
South China Morning Post
24-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Chinese humanoid robot star Unitree to focus on industrial models before household aides
Chinese robotics unicorn Unitree Robotics, whose products are mainly used in research and industrial applications, will not be launching humanoid robots for household use in the near future because of stringent safety requirements, according to the company's founder and CEO. Advertisement Wang Xingxing , who founded the start-up in 2016, said its household humanoid robots would come after industrial models, as the company would need to 'consider more safety issues', according to an interview published by Chinese government-affiliated media outlets, including China News Service and Guangzhou Daily. 'It's not easy to predict exactly how long it would take, [but] I think it wouldn't happen in the next two or three years,' Wang told reporters while attending a government event in Beijing last week. Unitree and its founder have gained significant visibility since January, after the start-up's 1.8 metre-tall H1 robots performed a folk dance during the state broadcaster's televised Spring Festival Gala, the country's most-watched show. In February, Wang sat in the front row at a high-profile business symposium hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Unitree, along with AI start-up DeepSeek, has drawn attention to its hometown of Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, overshadowing other tech hubs like Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province. Advertisement However, Unitree has recently established a new entity in Shenzhen. Shenzhen Tianyi Technology was registered on March 5 with a capital of 100,000 yuan (US$13,800). Its legal representative is Zhou Changhui, who also represents the company's entities in Beijing and Shanghai.
