China has invested billions into its artificial intelligence ambitions, aiming to be a leader in the global tech landscape. At the Beyond Expo in Macao, CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout explores the country’s latest breakthroughs and its growing influence in the world of AI.

Beijing

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

China is making significant strides in artificial intelligence, with a strong focus on humanoid robots and embodied AI, as showcased at the Beyond Expo in Macao. Companies like AI Squared Robotics are demonstrating rapid advancements, such as robots capable of learning new tasks in minutes and interacting naturally with humans. Nearly half of the world's top AI researchers are Chinese, reflecting the country's substantial investment and prioritization of AI at both governmental and corporate levels.

While China is embracing AI integration into daily life, experts note ongoing global concerns about the safe and ethical application of these technologies. The competition between the U.S. and China in AI development continues, but industry leaders emphasize the importance of collaboration and open-source innovation for the benefit of humanity. Despite trade tensions, China remains a key player in shaping the future of AI worldwide.

Humanoids leading China’s AI and tech revolution

From AI-powered smart glasses. I can see the text right in front of me and also it's transcribing and it's translating at the same time. To drones with facial recognition tracking your every move. It's now using AI to scan me, to scan my features, and then it can follow me around. Let's see. It's still following me. Artificial intelligence has taken center stage at this year's Beyond Expo, which took place in May 2025. But it's not just about ChatGPT and DeepSeek. The spotlight is on humanoids and embodied AI. Embodied artificial intelligence means that you need to embrace AI and hardware together. I think people focus more on natural language processing, but I think the next big wave of AI is embodied AI. Imagine a future where AI-powered robots can prepare your tea, help you fly a kite, and even execute your voice commands. Embodied AI is now making that possible. And Shenzhen-based AI Squared Robotics is bringing this vision to life. We try to leverage the large model technology to improve the intelligence of the robots. With this large model, our robot can understand people's saying, can understand environment, and it can do pretty much any task you ask the robot to do. This is very new. I put AI Squared Robotics' latest creation, Alphabot, to the test. Alphabot, do you want to play dice with me? Okay he got a four. Now it's my turn, right? It's your turn. I need to get the higher value. All right. Let me see what I can do. Wow, five! I got a five! Oh, you just gave me the thumbs up. Thank you, Alphabot. You created this program only for Macau, for the Expo here. How long did it take for you to develop that program? Well, if I tell you, you'll be surprised. Only five to ten minutes. And this is a really advantage of HDI robot. We just show the robot what to do. Maybe five, ten samples, the robot can learn. After you. AI Squared Robotics is just one of many leading AI innovators in China. Nearly half of the world's top AI researchers are Chinese. That's according to a 2022 study done by the Paulson Institute. And China has poured billions of dollars into its AI ambitions. AI has been on the mandate for the government as a priority for the last five years. So yes, you see a lot of the top-down effort from the government and also from the corporation, from the LISCO, and also from a lot of the private money going into China's AI, of course. Some experts believe China could lead the way in humanoid adoption. Do you think we're going to see the first mass rollout of a robot butler in the home in China before the U.S.? Yes, absolutely. I would bet on China to adopt humanoids much faster than the U.S. for a lot of reasons. Cass says for Chinese consumers, integrating AI into their daily lives goes beyond curiosity. In China, one of the things that I think is very true is that people have become very, very comfortable with this idea of the machine in a very intimate setting. People are just far more willing to say, oh, this technology is something that will make my life better because they operate from a place where the technology has made their lives better. But globally, there are still many anxieties surrounding the misuse of AI. Developing AI systems at this point is not the hard part. The hard part is going to be actually applying them in ways that people want and making sure that they're safe and serving humans. It is imperative that models care about the consequences of their actions because otherwise it will be a little scary. Behind the scenes of this expo, the U.S. and China are fighting a tech war. The U.S. has been striving for AI dominance in hopes that will foster economic productivity, scientific breakthroughs and national security. U.S. President Donald Trump's trade restrictions and tariffs are in part an attempt at slowing China's tech development. But industry leaders we spoke to here think that collaboration is the key to unlocking AI's true potential. In general, I think AI takes everybody's effort, right? And that's why DeepSeek is so amazing because DeepSeek is open source. So once you open source it, everybody can learn about it and everybody can improve upon it. And I think eventually it's not a race of China versus U.S. I think this is what a lot of the people think, oh, who's going to win the China race? But I think eventually it's going to be humanity versus AI. I suppose there's probably competing forces. On one hand, open trade drives faster innovation. On the other hand, artificial scarcity creates innovation. The net result, I hope, is one where we observe a world that is better no matter who invents a thing. Despite economic and trade uncertainties, one thing's for sure, China is all in when it comes to AI, and it is undeniably a major player in the global AI landscape.

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Humanoids leading China’s AI and tech revolution

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Rise of AI