From lumbering six-foot machines to nimble back-flipping dogs, robots lorded over China’s most important annual AI conference in Shanghai this week. Thousands turned up to gawk at the antics of a bewildering array of droids at work: dispensing popcorn and drinks (messily), peeling eggs, sparring in a boxing ring, playing mahjong or just wandering around the cavernous exhibition hall. The more popular robots were the creations of Unitree, UBTech Robotics Corp. and Agibot, who’ve built up some name-recognition among the hundreds of startups and big tech firms vying to produce the world’s most advanced humanoid androids. The scores of machines on display were the most visible symbol yet of China’s surprisingly rapid ascent in a key arena of artificial intelligence. Hangzhou-based Unitree teased an entry-level $6,000 droid and ByteDance Ltd. posted a video of its Mini hanging up a shirt just days before the World Artificial Intelligence Conference kicked off over the weekend. “The technology is developing so fast,” Deep Robotics’ Americas director Eric Wang told Bloomberg Television. But “so far, in the US market, we don’t see very cost-effective and reliable competitors. And we don’t see that happening in two to three years.”

Full report : At Shanghai’s World AI Conference, ByteDance, Unitree, UBTech, Agibot, and other Chinese companies demoed a wide range of robots, including boxing droids.