Noetix’s N2 robot walks the catwalk at the UNESCO venue in Paris on Oct. 8, 2025. Credit – Courtesy: Emma Meng Paris Fashion Week is no stranger to a gimmick. There was Coperni spraying a dress onto a model in 2022, followed by Schiaparelli’s faux animal heads a year later, and then Robert Wun’s blood-splattered…
With AI beginning to look as if it has reached a deployment plateau — if not a lessening of hype — high-tech promoters and investors are on the hunt for the next big thing. And they’re focusing on humanoid robots. You know the species because androids have been a mainstay of science fiction since before…
Ant Group unveiled its first humanoid robot at a trade show in Shanghai on Thursday, heralding the Chinese fintech company’s entry into the increasingly competitive field of embodied artificial intelligence to take on rivals like Unitree Robotics. The wheeled, two-armed humanoid, named R1, was developed by Ant’s robotics unit Ant Lingbo Technology, also known as…
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently made a bold announcement stating that around 80% of Tesla’s future company value will come from Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot project. This statement highlights Musk’s confidence in Optimus as a transformative technology with the potential to redefine Tesla’s business far beyond electric vehicles. While the company continues to face slowing…
Two new papers in Science Robotics, published on August 27 by UC Berkeley roboticist Ken Goldberg, argue that truly capable humanoid robots remain far further off than the most optimistic timelines suggest. While large language models (LLMs) surged into everyday use by training on vast internet text, Goldberg says robots can’t ride the same data…
Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China and economy stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China holds dominant position in humanoid robot ecosystem: analysts China is ahead of the West in terms of the scale of its humanoid robot industry, controlling more…
A humanoid robot gyrates to pulsing music at a shopping mall in Beijing, part of an exhibition harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance the flavour of China’s biggest annual festival. The country is celebrating the eight-day Lunar New Year holiday that typically sees people return home to eat, drink and make merry with family and friends….