AI isn’t just coming for your job, it might be about to take your medal, too. Advanced, humanoid robots are now taking to the sports field for the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, competing for a podium place across events including track and field, football, and kickboxing.

Taking place over three days, the event will see 280 teams from around the world descend on China’s capital city for the state-backed games, with Chinese-manufactured robots taking centre stage in what has already proven to be a popular, if slightly inept, showcase of the latest in ‘embodied AI’ technology.

So far, reports from the sidelines include robot heads flying off midway through the 1500-metre race, others collapsing while running full speed, missing each other to land on their ‘faces’ during kung-fu, and plenty of twisted metal and plastic as bots bang into each other on the playing field. 

“We come here to play and to win. But we are also interested in research,” Max Polter, a member of the HTWK Robots football team from Germany, told Reuters.

“You can test a lot of interesting, new and exciting approaches in this contest. If we try something and it doesn’t work, we lose the game. That’s sad, but it is better than investing a lot of money into a product that fails.”    

While they might not have the slick moves of the bots in Real Steel, these more-or-less human-like machines are an illustration of China’s growing dominance in the advanced robotics market.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, China’s national strategy is backed by robots, with advancements in humanoid technology specifically being central to the Chinese government’s growth plans. 

China’s latest government work report, released in March, states that under the AI Plus initiative, the country will prioritise the application of large-scale AI models to make its intelligent robot ambitions a reality, with plans already well on their way.   

The installation of 290,258 robotic units in 2022 alone represented 52% of the global robotic market, with the massive investment in industrial robotics putting China ahead of the US for robot density for the first time, sitting at 322 units per 10,000 employees.

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However, despite the Chinese government wanting to showcase its competency and competitiveness in this field, especially as the prospect of a Cold Tech War with the US looms large, experts don’t believe a mass adoption of humanoids is likely on the horizon.

“Futuristic humanoids working in homes, businesses, and public spaces fuel people’s interest,” says Takayuki Ito, president of the International Federation of Robotics.

“Since our environment is optimised for the human body the demand for a quick, universal helper to maintain manufacturing and services is evident. In any case, humanoids are not expected to replace the types of robots currently on the market in the future. Instead, they will complement and expand upon existing technology.”