China is living in the 22nd century already. While the world is busy cheering Paris Saint-Germain on at the ongoing Club World Cup, Beijing is in a league of its own with a humanoid robot soccer league.
And what is considered "way more entertaining than regular soccer" has the world's eyes on it.
On June 28, four university teams of humanoid robots faced off in fully autonomous 3-on-3 soccer matches powered entirely by artificial intelligence (AI). The tournament has been touted as a first in China and a preview for the upcoming World Humanoid Robot Games to be hosted by Beijing.
According to organisers Booster Robotics, a key aspect of the match was that all the participating robots operated fully autonomously using AI-driven strategies without any human intervention or supervision.
Ayaz Aziz, whose bio says he is an aerospace nerd and techie, explained how "the AI controlled robots have skills of 5- to 6-year-old children.
An X user quipped, "While we in India are busy stopping 10 year old diesel vehicles from running through #delhifuelban and making life harder for citizens, China has launched its first humanoid robot soccer league in Beijing."
How the humanoids played in Beijing
Equipped with advanced visual sensors, the robots were able to identify the ball and navigate the field with agility.
They were also designed to stand up on their own after falling. However, during the match several of them had to be carried off the field on stretchers by staff, adding to the realism of the experience.
But not just football. China is eyeing the fusion of AI and sport in other disciplines as well.
According to PTI, China is stepping up efforts to develop AI-powered humanoid robots, using sports competitions like marathons, boxing, and football as a real-world proving ground.
Will robots play football with humans soon?
Cheng Hao, founder and CEO of Booster Robotics, the company that supplied the robot players, said sports competitions offer the ideal testing ground for humanoid robots, helping to accelerate the development of both algorithms and integrated hardware-software systems.
He also emphasised safety as a core concern in the application of humanoid robots.
“In the future, we may arrange for robots to play football with humans. That means we must ensure the robots are completely safe,” Cheng said. “For example, a robot and a human could play a match where winning doesn't matter, but real offensive and defensive interactions take place. That would help audiences build trust and understand that robots are safe.”
Booster Robotics provided the hardware for the matches, while each school's research team developed and embedded their own algorithms for perception, decision-making, player formations, and passing strategies — including variables such as speed, force, and direction, according to Cheng.
China surges in tech
The development comes at a time when the world is marvelling at China’s technological leaps – from large language models to electronic vehicles.
The Wall Street Journal’s lead story on Wednesday morning was headlined “China Is Quickly Eroding America’s Lead in the Global AI Race.”
According to the WSJ report, “Chinese artificial-intelligence companies are loosening the U.S.’s global stranglehold on AI, challenging American superiority and setting the stage for a global arms race in the technology. In Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, users ranging from multinational banks to public universities are turning to large language models from Chinese companies such as startup DeepSeek and e-commerce giant Alibaba as alternatives to American offerings such as ChatGPT.”
On Wednesday, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) released a new white paper, China and the Global AI Race, revealing how China is leveraging its unique strengths in manufacturing, data, and a burgeoning startup scene to carve out a leadership role in artificial intelligence.
“AI is no longer just a sector – it is the architecture of a new global economy… And China's role in this transition is increasingly strategic,” CKGSB dean Li Haitao was quoted as saying.
The white paper dissects China's AI strategy on four fronts: the open-source revolution, workforce transformation, intelligent robotics, and AI ecosystem development.