A duel between two different visions of innovation. China and the United States have a tenacious rivalry, which has continued to increase since the power of Donald Trump. While Americans advocate completely unbridled development of AI, China offers a more supervised alternative.
The country took advantage of the IA World Conference (World Conference on AI) in Shanghai to show all its potential in terms of innovation. Robotics and artificial intelligence were particularly honest until the end of the event on July 28.
A unifying vision around AI
This conference offered China the opportunity to show its position on the issue of AI. It should be said that with the surprising departure of Deepseek in January 2025, he showed that his models could compete with those of the United States. The two countries concentrate most of the most efficient AI models to date.
But China also seeks to play the role of unifying the AI regulation. As Reuters, the Chinese prime minister, Li Qiang, wants to involve the reports of his country in establishing international supervision around AI.
The Asian giant also took advantage of the event to announce that they want to collaborate with certain countries in the southern hemisphere. The Chinese government could help them develop in their territories, at a lower cost. According to AFP, China also plans to preside over an international cooperation organization in AI, no details of this plan have been revealed.
In opposition to the United States
This measure measured and appealed to the International AI is in total contradiction with the opinions of the Donald Trump government. On July 23, the president presented his action plan in AI, there was a matter of letting the reins completely and leaving a free card for AI designer companies.
At the same time, the billionaire wanted to drastically limit the export of electronic fleas to its Asian competitor in Asia (in particular NVIDIA H20 chips). The goal was to stop China, which depended a lot on American technology.
It is clear that Trump’s multiple attempts to hinder Chinese innovation are struggling to bear fruit. Nvidia recently resumed its exports to China, at the beginning of July.
Robotics, also on a pedestal
Outside political ads, the WAIC remained a showcase for Chinese technological innovation. In the stands of the 800 companies present in the show, several Chinese robots with various capacities were demonstrated.
Unitree, one of the Chinese leaders in the field of humanoid robotics, particularly organized boxing fights. Your particularity? Two humanoid robots faced (the G1 models to be more precise).
These robot games could become a new version of entertainment. But if Unitre has decided to organize them, it is also to show progress in the balance and coordination of the movement of their robots. The start -up often puts its robots in videos, in the past G1 making Kung Fu movements.
Another robot caught the attention of visitors, a humanoid capable of playing Mah-Jong (a Chinese board game that contains tiles that resemble the dominoes). Here, this is not a demonstration of strength or balance, but of precision. This robot, developed by the Chinese company Psibot, is illustrated by meticulous fingers. Other machines were also exposed, such as the robots of the popcorn server Keenon Robotics or China’s mobile dogs.
In humanoid robotics, the country of Asia knows how to do it well. China has made this sector a priority, with two concrete applications: simple tasks in the industrial environment and domestic help for their aging of the population.
In this area, the United States is much more discreet. The main US companies in humanoid robotics (Tesla, figure and Boston Dynamics) recently find it difficult to highlight technically from their Chinese competitors.
Source: BFM TV
