GoKawiil
Tech News
A veteran smart-home reviewer argues that despite a wave of humanoid robots shown at CES and this week's IFA in Berlin, including 1X's $20,000 Neo, none are truly ready to handle household chores. She notes homes are cluttered, unpredictable, and full of stairs, conditions that heavy, leg-based machines struggle to navigate safely.
Washington expanded its restrictions on foreign-made robotics and drones in July and August, citing national security, adding steep tariffs on imported drones that take effect this September, with component tariffs to follow in 2027. The rules extend the FCC's Covered List, which previously targeted telecom firms like Huawei and Hikvision, to now cover drones and advanced robotic devices, even as Chinese firms dominate global humanoid robot shipments.
At an annual robotics showcase in Beijing, humanoid robots competed across events including sprints, standing high jump, kickboxing and dance routines. Several machines reportedly surpassed human world records, including in the 100-meter and 400-meter sprints, while others suffered dramatic falls during the competitions.
A roundup covers Meta's reckoning moment alongside separate stories: the real-world impact of school phone bans, the rise and fall of a self-styled 'Nostradamus of AI' figure, and Nvidia's push to power robotics infrastructure globally.
Beijing hosted the second World Humanoid Robot Games, a five-day event featuring humanoid robots competing in sprints, weightlifting, and cheerleading routines. Alongside genuine performance gains over last year's inaugural games, the event was marked by spectacular malfunctions, including robots losing limbs, catching fire, and crashing into judges' tables.
Chinese robotics firms are building humanoid and industrial robots using Nvidia's chips and simulation software, an area of AI hardware trade that remains largely permitted under current U.S. export rules. Nvidia has positioned itself as a key infrastructure provider for this 'physical AI' sector, supplying both computing power and development platforms to Chinese customers despite broader U.S.-China tech tensions.
Artist Simon Weckert has designed a garment called Digital Camouflage featuring an abstract pattern of green, pink, and orange shapes. While the pattern looks like ordinary decorative art to people, it is engineered to confuse computer vision systems so they fail to recognize the wearer as a human.
Xpeng's robotics division closed a funding round exceeding $900 million, valuing the unit at over $6.3 billion, in what the company calls China's largest-ever private financing for embodied AI. IDG Capital led the round with backing from Gaorong Ventures, Tencent and Alibaba, while Xpeng founder He Xiaopeng and co-president Brian Gu personally contributed roughly $100 million. Other Chinese automakers—including BYD, Chery's AiMOGA unit, Changan, GAC, Li Auto, SAIC and Seres—are also building or preparing to spin off humanoid robot programs.
BlackBerry, once dominant in mobile phones and messaging via BBM, has reinvented itself as a provider of secure software for vehicles and communications. CEO John Giamatteo told CNBC's 'The Tech Download' that the company's shares have doubled this year as investors respond to this shift, with AI now factoring into its future plans.
Salem Robotics, founded by veterans of UT Austin robotics research and Los Alamos National Laboratory, is building software that lets existing mobile robots perform hazardous industrial inspections such as radioactive contamination smears and leak detection checks. The system focuses on precise, constrained manipulation—keeping a probe normal to a surface or within a tight offset from a pipe—while accounting for kinematics, joint limits, and collisions. The company demonstrated its software running on real robot hardware in a launch video.
Hyundai CEO José Muñoz said the automaker intends to use its existing dealer network to sell robots like Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid and Spot quadruped, alongside cars. Hyundai Capital, the company's auto financing arm, is also exploring ways to offer financing for these costly machines. Hyundai plans a factory to produce 30,000 Atlas units annually by 2028, with deployment starting at its Georgia plant.
More than 600 teams, mostly from Chinese universities and robotics firms, brought humanoid machines to Beijing's second World Humanoid Robot Games from August 22 to 26. Alongside sprint, jump and combat contests, organizers added scenario-based challenges like shelving books and making beds, scoring autonomous performances higher than remotely operated ones. Robots set records in speed and jumping, but researchers noted that everyday chores remain far tougher for machines than flashy athletic feats.