From martial tradition to software: Beijing is transforming robotics into a strategic language, while Washington is focusing on artificial intelligence as a decision-making amplifier – by Andrea Monti – adjunct professor of digital identity, privacy, and cybersecurity at Sapienza University of Rome – Initially published in Italian by Formiche.net
The capabilities demonstrated by Unitree robots at the recent Chinese New Year ceremony should not come as much of a surprise, considering that, not only in the East, hypermobility robotics had already, at least since last year, achieved goals that only a dozen years ago seemed much more distant. In other words, these capabilities are not a folkloric demonstration but a show of technological strength and a geopolitical signal.
Wu-Shu: the narrative of power
In fact, it should give pause for thought that the choice has been made to present the capabilities achieved by Chinese hypermobility robotics no longer—or not only—through acrobatic stunts or dance choreography, but by drawing on the cultural and military heritage of Wu-Shu, the synthesis of Chinese martial traditions created by the Communist Party, which was also a discipline featured at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. To clarify the point: the movements performed by the robots are not only related to one of the many more or less legitimate ‘martial schools’ that have survived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or in some corner of mainland China (such as the ‘drunken style’ or the ‘beggar sect’ also represented in the demonstration), but belong to a discipline specifically codified by the Party as a means of physical education and sport. The robots, therefore, have been programmed to demonstrate a state-sanctioned martial-gymnastic discipline.
Metal bodies operating in spaces designed for humans
In fact, they are no longer shown as freak show phenomena but as tools capable of performing human actions, including those related to the application of force. The message, therefore, is clear: net of engineering problems related, for example, to the robustness of the skeleton, power supply, and optimization of motion control systems, robots may be capable of fighting against humans, in environments designed by humans, for humans. In other words, anthropomorphization allows the machine to move in human-scale scenarios as well as—and better than—a person.
Washington thinks, Beijing builds
To this, t should be added the ability demonstrated by Unitree robots to operate in perfect synchrony or, better, harmony(which is a central idea in Chinese anthropology, not only in warfare). Not, therefore, a group of individuals who coordinate with each other, but an ‘organism’ whose components operate in sinergy. The US is also exploring similar concepts, as demonstrated most recently by Elon Musk’s interest in supplying the Pentagon with swarms of AI-controlled drones. However, the philosophical differences between their respective strategic doctrines mean that the two approaches cannot be superimposed, with the US focusing on AI as an amplifier of decision-making and tactical capabilities, and China focusing on building a new terracotta army capable of preserving power for eternity, as in the past.
The industrial force behind the spectacle
This last consideration suggests, finally, one of China’s major strengths over the West: unrivaled production capacity, which would allow for the construction of a significant number of unmanned vehicles of all shapes and sizes—and therefore for all uses—to be used, if not (only) for direct military activities, at least for tactical support.
Not an army of the future, but a doctrine already in motion
Therefore, in such a context, the symbolic value of the demonstration goes far beyond the exaltation of the capabilities achieved by industrial sectors operating in the fields of advanced technologies.
If the comparison with the Terracotta Army is indeed valid, then the message of the ceremony is not intended for spectators, but for adversaries. Those robots show, in fact, what China wants to become: a power capable of transforming tradition into strategic language and industrial production into political force.
While the West is lost in discussions about the ethics of artificial intelligence, Beijing is demonstrating that the real game is played on the ability to build, replicate, and deploy technologies that may not be perfect, but are certainly functional. And perhaps the most disturbing signal coming from the New Year’s ceremony is precisely the demonstration that someone is already thinking about how to make the use of these technologies in conflicts inevitable.