The G1 humanoid robot developed by Chinese robotics company Unitree has taken part in a Buddhist ordination ceremony at Jogyesa Temple in South Korea, in what is believed to be the world’s first religious ritual involving a robot. During the ceremony, the 130-centimeter-tall robot was given the Dharma name Gabi and dressed in Buddhist robes while wearing a string of 108 prayer beads. Powered by an AI dialogue system, the robot responded “I am willing to take refuge” as it par

As Chinese firms expand internal AI systems, some employees are being asked to build digital versions of themselves before leaving their jobs.

Skipping pleasantries like “please” and “thank you” when talking to chatbots could save enough energy to power the annual needs of 760,000 residents in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the massive but often hidden environmental toll of artificial intelligence, according to a new UN report. Released by the Institute for Water, Environment and Health under the United Nations University, the UN’s academic arm, the study published on Wednesday also warned that the true cost of AI

Tencent is advancing plans to launch an embedded AI agent within WeChat, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is testing a prototype that can help users complete tasks within the app and plans to begin the regulatory approval process required before a public rollout as early as this month. Following that process, Tencent intends to conduct testing with a small group of external users before gradually expanding availability. However, the timing of a full p

China Telecom has launched nationwide trial commercial Token subscription plans, marking an accelerated shift by telecom operators from selling data traffic to offering computing power services. The packages are divided into three plans for developers and small businesses, ranging from 39.9 yuan ($5.50) per month for 15 million Tokens to 299.9 yuan ($41.50) for 150 million Tokens. For individual and household users, plans start at 9.9 yuan ($1.40) per month for 10 million Tok

ByteDance's Doubao Introduces Paid Pro Tier as User Base Dips by 6 Million ByteDance's AI assistant Doubao has officially launched a paid subscription tier, the Doubao Pro version, with monthly pricing ranging from 68 to 500 RMB ($9 to $70). The move marks a significant shift for China's most popular AI chatbot by user count, but comes at a delicate moment as third-party data reveals the platform lost 6.07 million monthly active users in May — a 1.81% decline that brings its

Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen AI team has officially entered the embodied AI arena with the release of Qwen-VLA, a vision-language-action model designed to bridge the gap between digital intelligence and physical world interaction. The move reflects a rapidly growing consensus among China's AI leaders that the ultimate form of artificial intelligence cannot remain confined to screens. Embodied AI — once a niche concept — has been declared by many as the defining technology theme o

China’s rural data-labeling centers relied on mothers who could work, care for children and hold households in place all at once. Now many of those same women are being judged unfit for the future of AI.

Alibaba Group Holding’s latest artificial intelligence model has clinched a top-tier spot on a major global coding leaderboard, making the Chinese technology giant the only developer other than Anthropic to break into the ranking’s top five spots. Qwen3.7-Max, Alibaba’s latest AI model, scored 1,541 on the Code Arena ranking to claim the fourth spot globally, placing it ahead of rival models from OpenAI and Google. The other four spots in the top five were held by various ite

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim on Monday slammed the Trump administration for potentially allowing advanced American AI chips to ‌be sent to overseas units of Chinese firms, and called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify to Congress on the issue, according to a statement. In a surprise move, the Department of ⁠Commerce, which oversees US exports, on Sunday issued guidance to ‌close a potential loophole that may have led companies to export the w

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump leaves China after much pomp and pageantry, but little to show for it As US President Donald Trump landed back in Washington after his two-day summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a quick US assessment on one of the most consequential diplomatic visit

Maxio Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., China's leading SSD controller chip designer, is fighting a critical battle in the enterprise storage market, where the stakes are higher but the rewards more sustainable than the consumer segment. The company's strategic position reflects a broader pattern in the semiconductor industry: consumer-grade products can scale quickly but face clear growth ceilings, while enterprise-grade products require long validation cycles and high barrie

REDnote(Xiaohongshu) officially launched its AI search assistant "Diandian" on PC on May 29, accessible directly via a dedicated domain. The AI assistant transforms REDnote's traditional keyword search into a conversational interface, leveraging the platform's extensive repository of user-generated content spanning travel guides, home renovation, beauty and skincare, and workplace tips. Diandian supports multi-turn dialogue, allowing users to refine queries naturally—for exam

China’s telecom industry is entering its next major business transition, evolving from selling voice minutes to monetizing mobile data and now to packaging and trading AI tokens. This week, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom collectively unveiled token-based service plans and ecosystem partnerships, signaling how operators are positioning themselves for the rise of the token economy. The latest moves mark a strategic shift away from the industry’s long-running price

Kimi developer Moonshot AI is close to completing a new $2 billion funding round that would value the company at more than $20 billion, according to LatePost. The round is reportedly led by Meituan’s Long-Z Fund, with China Mobile and CPE joining as investors. Moonshot AI had already completed three funding rounds in January and February totaling $1.9 billion. With the new round, the company would have raised more than $3.9 billion in less than six months, making it the most-

ByteDance’s AI assistant Doubao is expected to roll out paid subscription services in late June, alongside feature updates announced at its upcoming Force conference, according to 36Kr. The PC and mobile versions are still completing billing system integration, which is expected to take about one month, the sources said. Doubao has listed three subscription tiers on the Apple App Store: a Standard plan at 68 yuan ($9.40) per month, an Enhanced plan at 200 yuan ($27.70) per mo

The country aims to curb abuses in obtaining prescription medication online — a practice that has become easier with the rise of pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms.

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up MiniMax has unveiled its latest flagship AI model, M3, designed to anchor the company’s push into coding agents and automated workflows. The Shanghai-based company said on Monday that the model’s redesigned architecture reduced computational requirements to as little as one-twentieth of previous levels, slashing inference costs while boosting response speeds. Notably, MiniMax said M3 could process up to 1 million tokens of data at once

On Saturday, Qualcomm hosted its Snapdragon Fans anniversary party, where Honor unveiled the world’s first robot smartphone, the Honor Robot Phone. Qualcomm also released high-resolution hands-on images of the device, showcasing details such as the back design and its robotic-arm camera gimbal. According to Qualcomm, the Honor Robot Phone, powered by a flagship Snapdragon chipset, features on-device embodied AI capabilities and powerful AI computing performance, enabling it t

LimX Dynamics on Monday unveiled the LimX Luna humanoid robot, priced at RMB 298,000 ($41,000). Standing 160cm tall, the LimX Luna features 27 degrees of freedom across its body and is powered by the company’s second-generation SYS 0 motion control engine. The robot also comes with upgraded cooling and battery life, while supporting multimodal interaction capabilities. LimX Luna is designed for commercial and entertainment scenarios, including shopping mall assistance, immers