AI-powered humanoids went head to head in a steel cage match in Shanghai as part of the Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend (URKL) league. Gaza's children return to classrooms after years of Israeli attacks'There will be a very sizeable Saudi response' to Houthi attacks

The IRGC-linked Strait of Hormuz toll authority regained secure web access for four days via Shanghai-based certificate authority TrustAsia, briefly circumventing U.S. sanctions.

Huawei set to unveil China's best answer to Nvidia AI chip reign People walk past the Huawei booth, where the Atlas 950 SuperPoD system is displayed, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 17. | REUTERS Huawei Technologies is set to unveil new AI technology this week in defiance of U.S. export control curbs, advancing its ambition to replace Nvidia in China and compete on the global stage. Huawei's rotating chairman Wang Tao will present its upcoming Ascend 960 AI chips, to be commercially available in 2027, at the company's annual summit in Shanghai on Thursday. Some critical details that analysts will watch out for include whether the new component will be powerful enough for training frontier AI models. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Plus: No one really knows how to safely test frontier AI models. Chatbots took schools by surprise. Suddenly, students carried an app in their phones that could magically answer almost any homework question or spin up an essay in seconds. Organizations ranging from OpenAI to UNESCO encourage AI use in the classroom, but many teachers aren't sure how to handle it. Yet some promising approaches are emerging. At Cheshire Academy, for example, teachers are trained on general techniques for using AI rather than prescribed tools.

I spent a day at a robot "carnival" in Shanghai. Humanoids are becoming a popular form of public entertainment here. "Look, it is trying to do a handstand!" The toy pet is a gift his mom just bought him at a robot "carnival" held by an R&D center on the outskirts of Shanghai, and he can't stop showing it off to passersby. It's a public holiday, and curious families are pouring in to the event to see what's on display. This busy hub houses more than 100 companies that research, develop, manufacture, and market robotic technologies and equipment.

China's Unitree soars in market debut as investors bet on humanoid robots China's Unitree Robotics has soared in its market debut, a sign of investors' confidence in Chinese innovation in the burgeoning field of human-like robots. Shares of Unitree surged more than 620 percent on Wednesday as it began trading in Shanghai, lifting the Hangzhou-based company's market capitalisation to as high as 445 billion yuan ($66bn). Unitree, whose main competitors include China's AgiBot and US-based Tesla and Boston Dynamics, had priced its initial public offering at 50.8 yuan per share for a company valuation of about 61 billion yuan ($9bn). The landmark IPO marked the first listing of a humanoid robotics company in mainland China. Unitree, founded in 2016 by engineer Wang Xingxing, is one of China's leading makers of humanoid robots, with its demonstrations of human-like figures performing dancing and martial arts routines capturing widespread attention.

Image caption, Unitree's humanoid robots have been at the centre of a huge marketing push The world's biggest humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics made its stock market debut in Shanghai on Wednesday, with its shares soaring by more than 600%. In the highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO), the firm's shares opened at 1,100 yuan (£120.60; The listing on the tech-focused Star Market - which is widely known as China's Nasdaq - marks a milestone for Beijing's ambitious plans for the country's robotics industry. It comes as the US and China are locked in a battle to dominate the global market for robots and artificial intelligence (AI) models that power them. Robots like automated industrial equipment and smart vacuum cleaners are already widely used in factories, warehouses and homes. Now, the humanoid robotics industry is attracting huge amounts of investment as major companies - including Tesla, BYD and Amazon - are developing two-legged machines capable of performing tasks usually carried out by people.

How U.S. military funding propelled China's robot dogs A child sits next to G1 humanoid robots produced by China's Unitree Robotics as he interacts with a Go2 robot, at a Unitree store in Beijing on Aug. 1. | REUTERS WASHINGTON - China's Unitree Robotics -- among the world's biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots -- based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. defense technology official and three top researchers involved in the project. Unitree's $1,600 Go2 model, launched in 2023, helped the company rapidly dominate the global quadruped robot market -- its Shanghai initial public offering has drawn frenzied demand. Another Unitree robot has been shown on Chinese state television, armed and accompanying People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops on an exercise. These robots draw on breakthroughs in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and other military programs, the researchers and the former official said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

China's Unitree unveils'Superman' robot as fervor builds ahead of Shanghai debut SHANGHAI/BEIJING - China's Unitree unveiled a new high-speed robot it dubbed "Superman" on Monday, days before becoming the first general-purpose robotics company to list on mainland China's stock market. Unitree, the world's biggest humanoid-robot maker by sales, will start trading in Shanghai on Wednesday after raising 6.1 billion yuan ($905 million) in an initial public offering last week. The company, based in the eastern Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou, said it developed the new robot in just over three months. It achieved a standing jump of 2 meters and reached a top speed of 12.66 meters per second. The Shanghai debut coincides with the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, adding to investor attention on a company whose humanoid robots have drawn global notice for running, dancing and performing martial arts. The IPO was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, a record for Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market.

What is Unitree and why are China's humanoid robot makers racing to list? Remotely-controlled Unitree humanoid robots take part in a fight during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 18. | AFP-JIJI Beijing - Chinese robot maker Unitree has priced its Shanghai initial public offering at 150.80 yuan per share, seeking to raise 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) in a deal that would see it become the first mainland-listed humanoid robot manufacturer. Unitree said its retail tranche was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed, underscoring intense investor enthusiasm in China for humanoid robotics. The following is a look at Unitree and why it is leading several Chinese robotics companies toward public listings. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.