From dance floor to war: China readies humanoid robots for combat

At the World Humanoid Robot Games in China last month, robots jumped, boxed and danced. Some fleet-footed bots ran faster than Usain Bolt over 100 meters. Spectators cheered the machines’ improving capabilities and their meme-worthy stumbles.

Two days after the Games ended, the People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper drew its ​own conclusions from the show. The PLA Daily called for researchers to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge technologies from ​laboratories to military training grounds for robotic “combatants.”