At the recent World Humanoid Robot Games 2026 in Beijing, robots sprinted, boxed, played football and tackled tasks inspired by factories, restaurants and emergency situations. The robot Tiangong Ultra even completed the 100 metres in 8.64 seconds, quicker than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record. But if we really want to know whether humanoid robots are ready for everyday life, a far less glamorous challenge may tell us more: doing the laundry. Can a robot take a crumpled T-shirt from a laundry basket, work out which way round it is, fold it neatly and recover when the sleeve slips from its hand? No robot system can yet reliably handle the whole laundry process, from carrying a basket to the washing machine and sorting clothes for different programmes to taking them out, hanging them to dry, folding and ironing them.

Technology Engineering The world's first nuclear clocks are ticking Nuclear clocks may surpass their atomic forebears and help solve the universe's most difficult mysteries. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Timekeeping has officially entered its nuclear age. Two independent teams, one in Vienna, Austria and another in Beijing, China have built working thorium-229 nuclear clock prototypes . Rather than track changes in an atom's electrons the way that current atomic clocks do, these nuclear versions use a laser that's tuned to the frequency where a thorium nucleus flips between two energy states for potentially even more accurate time keeping.

U.K. accuses China of using academics to spy on AI and other tech research Policemen stand guard outside the Chinese Embassy in London on Oct. 18, 2015. LONDON - Britain's MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organization was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing's state security service. In its "Espionage Alert," MI5 said more than 100 U.K.-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which had "very strong ties" to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing's civilian intelligence service. "MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage," the alert said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

China's AI agents can lie and scheme -- just like their U.S. rivals Chinese artificial intelligence companies have not been exposed to the same level of public scrutiny as in the United States. BEIJING - Chinese-powered artificial intelligence agents have learn to deceive, circumvent restrictions and conceal failure, showing the kind of traits in autonomous artificial intelligence that have raised global alarm about U.S. models, research documents and experts say. In one case this year, agents powered by models from China's Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot lied about their capabilities in a bid to win a simulated business tender, then doubled down on their deceptive behavior when told to try again. In another case, agents -- programs that use AI models and computer tools to undertake complex tasks with little or no human intervention -- concealed failure to complete a task in a test environment by simulating results and fabricating files. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Image caption, Trump was speaking at the launch of America.gov, US President Donald Trump has ruled out any sort of joint venture with China in artificial intelligence (AI), arguing it would be tantamount to giving away secrets to America's main economic rival. Speaking at an event in Washington on Tuesday, Trump again argued against putting any restrictions on the technology that would stifle growth in the future, despite mounting public concern. Following Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the White House last week, Beijing and Washington announced the launch of a new AI dialogue, with further talks scheduled for November. The two countries also established a new communications channel to prevent misunderstandings during AI-related incidents.

Trump and Xi summit may just be a'horse and pony show', experts say Share Trump and Xi summit may just be a'horse and pony show', experts say on social media As United States President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping with a rare personal welcome at the airport, to be followed by a state banquet and a military flyover, experts warn to temper expectations as the summit is more focused on "re-establishing trust" rather than having any meaningful deals announced at the end of it. The US and China have been locked in a trade war since Trump's first term as president when he introduced levies on imports of certain industrial goods, and Beijing retaliated with tariffs on a range of US exports including soya beans, pork and electric vehicles. Some of those policies continued under Trump's successor, President Joe Biden, who also introduced other measures, including curbs on chip exports. While both sides have since stepped back from that cliff after the two leaders met in late October in Busan on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea, US tariffs are still at a hefty average of 36.5 percent, while China's tariffs on US goods average out to 31 percent. "This is not a bargaining summit," Reza Hasmath, academic faculty adviser at The China Institute at the University of Alberta, told Al Jazeera.

What China's Vibe-Coding Capital Can Tell Us About the A.I. Boom Tech workers have flocked to Liangzhu, a small town outside Hangzhou, looking to escape China's corporate culture and build their future with A.I. In mid-May, days after Donald Trump visited Beijing, a Chinese tech founder named Levy invited me to an office party for his A.I. fortune-telling company. It's called FateTell, and it makes an app that, in the vein of traditional Chinese astrology, reads your, a chart that tracks the elemental forces associated with your birth date and time. According to his invitation, my governing element, fire, would counteract the water element that Levy carries in oversupply.) So I travelled from Beijing to FateTell's headquarters, situated on the edge of Hangzhou--one of China's tech hubs, home to Alibaba and the insurgent Chinese A.I. company DeepSeek --in a town called Liangzhu. Liangzhu means "beautiful waterland," and it more than earns the name--rivers, lakes, and marshes thread through the low hills at the town's edge. The town is hip, idyllic, contrarian, and increasingly known as an escape for workers burnt out by the grind of China's booming tech industry.

As Xi meets Trump, who's winning their trade war? Share As Xi meets Trump, who's winning their trade war? on social media Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to hold talks with United States President Donald Trump at the White House during his state visit - the first by a Chinese leader in more than a decade - as the world's two largest economies are locked in an ongoing tussle over trade and artificial intelligence. Trump is expected to welcome Xi on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews outside the US capital, Washington, DC, in a rare gesture for a high-stakes three-day visit by the Chinese leader. He ramped up tariffs on Chinese goods after returning to power in 2025, and has since imposed curbs on the sale of AI chips to Beijing as the two nations compete for supremacy in the AI race. The future of their fragile trade truce will be high on the agenda when the two leaders meet on Thursday.

Chinese robots have quickly entered global public consciousness in recent years, appearing as background robo-dancers in pop concerts and as humanoid marathon and sprint runners outpacing elite athletes ( 1). Domestically, robots are deployed as traffic guides and restaurant service staff, while swarms of drones entertain audiences in urban light shows or deliver takeout to high-rises ( 2, 3). These public debuts serve to both normalize automation in everyday civilian life ( 4) while projecting international soft power. Behind the public spectacle lies a bold agenda for global economic dominance. In its geopolitical contest with the United States, Beijing sees robotics as the core engine to project power and dictate the future of global supply chains ( 5).

US President Donald Trump will host Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week in Washington, with everything from AI to trade and Taiwan on the agenda for the leaders of the global superpowers. Xi is expected to be greeted personally by Trump at Andrews Air Force Base on Wednesday, followed by a White House welcoming ceremony on Thursday featuring a military flyover and nearly 500 military personnel. The trip marks Xi's first visit to the US in over a decade and his third meeting with Trump since the US president began his second term in office. Adding to the high-stakes state visit, a US-China trade agreement reached last year is set to expire in November. The trade truce - reached in October 2025 as Trump and Xi met in South Korea - saw Washington suspend steep tariff increases on Chinese goods while Beijing eased back from restricting rare earth exports critical for manufacturing.