But even before this month, China has been turning to high-profile events to showcase its tech, including a robot half-marathon and dancing humanoid robots during its Lunar New Year’s Eve TV gala, watched by hundreds of millions of people, according to The New York Times.

Amid a lot of stumbles and scrums the human-like bots showcased some advanced abilities. And there could be a billion of them around by 2050.

Over 500 robots competed in soccer, boxing, and running. In many cases, gravity was the real winner. This week, China’s leading robotics minds gathered in Beijing for a hotly-anticipated, Olympics-style event dubbed the world’s first “ Humanoid Robot Games. ”

Last week in Beijing, an event took place that could revolutionize sports history — or might just stand out as an interesting curiosity for technology enthusiasts. That event was the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games,

In a display that was part Olympic spectacle, part slapstick comedy, the iWorld Humanoid Robot Games have just finished, leaving us breathing a sigh of relief that we aren't going to be taken over by robot overlords just yet.