At a Shanghai carnival, Chinese families got hands-on with robots as the country pushes embodied AI into everyday life.

At a robot carnival in Shanghai, humanoid robots performed martial arts, robotic arms attempted to fold T-shirts, and a robotic dog did stunts for a crowd of families on a public holiday. Children also learned to walk quadrupedal robots, and remote-controlled bots fired water beads at one another.

China has made embodied AI a key part of its latest five-year plan, and Chinese firms made nearly 90 percent of the humanoid robots shipped globally last year. The Shanghai carnival took place at an R&D hub housing more than 100 robotics firms, including DexForce, which showed a coffee-making humanoid.

Builders and operators should treat the carnival as evidence that China is scaling humanoid manufacturing for real-world work, not just demos. High prices, short battery life, and safety concerns still limit deployments, and many roboticists question the human form for practical tasks.

Next, watch whether these robots move from carnival stages into practical deployments. Chinese firms are already placing humanoids in shopping malls and tourist attractions, and bipedal robots in Beijing are running half-marathons to test real-world limits.

What matters

• Shanghai’s robot carnival drew families and showcased humanoids, robotic dogs, and coffee-making robots.
• China accounted for 90 percent of global humanoid deliveries last year, signaling supply-chain momentum.
• Chinese humanoids must move beyond showcases into real deployments despite safety and battery limits.

Why it matters

Chinese humanoids must move beyond showcases into real deployments despite safety and battery limits.

This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by MIT Technology Review AI. Source reference: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/25/1141907/dispatch-shanghai-humanoid-robot-carnival/.

Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.