The World Could Change Completely Due to New Technology from China
The United States (US) and China are competing to become the world’s leading nation in advanced technology development. One source of tension is the battle for dominance in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Although the US often garners attention for its most advanced chips and AI models, China frequently introduces grassroots innovations that could transform the world. One such example is the development of AI-based humanoid robots resembling humans.
Recently, a Chinese-made humanoid won a half-marathon race against humans. Not only that, Chinese humanoids continue to showcase improving abilities.
In a demonstration held by startup X Square Robot in Beijing, the Chinese humanoid was able to pick up rubbish and arrange a bouquet of flowers.
At first glance, picking up rubbish and arranging flowers seem like light tasks compared to what Chinese humanoids have previously demonstrated. They had already been able to run, dance, and spin.
However, this newly demonstrated humanoid shows a more profound change: performing more complex and unpredictable tasks for everyday household environments.
“The hardware is largely in place, but the brain hasn’t caught up yet,” said Wang Qian, CEO of X Square Robot.
Chinese companies are now shifting from pre-programmed demonstrations to real-world applications. Chinese humanoid robots can complete a half-marathon faster than human athletes, but tasks that seem simple to ordinary humans remain extremely difficult for these machines.
The light tasks in question include tidying up a messy room, loading a dishwasher, and folding clothes.
“Why don’t marathon robots face these challenges? Because they primarily deal with constant gravitational terrain,” said CEO Wang.
“However, when we manipulate something with our hands, if we miss by just 0.1 millimetres, the entire task might fail,” he added.
Repetitive activities like running require training with simpler datasets. In contrast, performing ‘light’ household tasks that are never truly ‘the same’ requires a smarter AI brain to perceive situations and move accordingly to varying conditions, just like humans.
X Square Robot, based in Shenzhen, stated that the company has developed an AI model for handling more unpredictable daily tasks. The model is named Wall-B and has been trained using datasets from over 100 households.
This model will be introduced through home cleaning robots at the end of May 2026. Last month, X Square also collaborated with the 58com platform, allowing users in Shenzhen to book professional cleaners along with one home cleaning robot.
For a 3-hour service, the cost is 149 yuan, equivalent to Rp374,000. The company said the machine has served more than 50 homes so far.
Customer feedback indicates that the machines are still slow and clumsy. CEO Wang said the robots’ performance can only improve with continuous real-world work in homes.
“Sometimes the robot might place slippers in the kitchen, or stop in the middle of cleaning a table to ‘think’,” said Wang, adding that whenever a robot encounters a malfunction or cannot complete a task, a company employee intervenes remotely.
Wang said that once this home cleaning robot technology matures, the robots will be fully reliable for cleaning homes and assisting with daily tasks. The market potential is also enormous.
“Domestic labour contributes around 20% to GDP, so theoretically, this humanoid has a market that accounts for 20% of GDP,” he said.
Founded less than three years ago, X Square Robot has raised billions of yuan through several funding rounds, including from Chinese tech giants investing heavily in AI, such as Xiaomi and Alibaba.