Latest humanoid robot has world asking, ‘Is this real or a fake?’
A Chinese car manufacturer has unveiled an AI-powered robot so lifelike they had to prove to the audience it wasn’t a human fake – but many people still weren’t convinced. What do you think?
READING LEVEL: GREEN
It’s a scene that could have come straight out of a sci-fi film. A new “humanoid*” robot has just been unveiled – and it’s so lifelike in the way it moves that many people are questioning whether it is even real.
Chinese car manufacturer Xpeng has just unveiled its Next-Gen Iron robot and it has already caused a stir online.
Footage from the company’s 2025 Xpeng AI Day in Guangzhou, China, showed Xpeng’s robot walking on stage with an amazingly realistic “catwalk” stride and human-like movements.
It looked so convincing that people on social media questioned whether it was the most advanced humanoid yet, even beating the highly anticipated Tesla Optimus*.
“If this is a robot, they have the most advanced walk so far …” one user on X wrote.
“If it’s a real humanoid – it’s IMPRRRRRRESSIVE!” another added.
“Walking better than Tesla’s million dollar robot,” another commenter said.
Xpeng has been accused of faking its robot’s capabilities, with many claiming the company uses real humans beneath robot suits.
And after facing a flood of accusations that Iron was fake, Xpeng decided to put the rumours to rest.
During the live presentation, Xpeng staff began cutting its left leg open while on stage to prove that inside there were indeed wires and circuits, and not flesh and bone.
But for some sceptics, that stunt still wasn’t enough.
“I’m gonna say human in a suit, never seen other humanoids achieve such a realistic hip sway and catwalk,” one user on X said.
“I would say definitely a human in a suit! If it’s not, well, that would be amazing!” another user said.
“It’s just a human with augmented* leg,” one commenter wrote.
“Plot twist – it’s an amputee*,” another wrote.
After the event, Xpeng chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng shared an unedited video on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform similar to X, as proof the new Iron robot was indeed robotic.
The Iron model is made from an endoskeleton* which features a “humanoid spine, bionic* muscles and fully covered flexible skin” which can also be customised into different body types.
According to the company, the robot has 82 degrees of freedom*, which gives it smooth, flexible movements. It’s also powered by three custom AI* chips that offer up to 3000 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of computing power, making it one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots.
Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said the company aims to achieve mass production of advanced humanoid robots by the end of 2026.
Xpeng also plans to open the robot’s software development kit to global developers to help expand its “humanoid ecosystem*”.
Meanwhile, Russia’s first AI-powered, humanoid bot, AIdol, had an embarrassing launch to the public during its official presentation in Moscow last week, after it collapsed onstage.
Hilarious footage shows the machine wobbling onto the stage and waving to the crowd before lurching forward with several clunky steps before falling flat on its face.
The robot was supposed to herald Russia’s arrival in the global race for developing convincing humanoid robots.
Idol CEO Vladimir Vitukhin blamed the fall on calibration* issues, saying that the robot was still in its test phase.
Parts of this article were originally published on The Sun and are reproduced here with permission
WATCH THE VIDEO OF XPENG’S IRON ROBOT AND ITS HUMAN-LIKE WALK
WATCH THE VIDEO OF RUSSIA’S EPIC ROBOT FAIL
POLL
GLOSSARY
- humanoid: a robot that is modelled on a human
- Tesla Optimus: a humanoid robot under development by Elon Musk’s company Tesla
- augmented: a prosthetic leg that can move and feel thanks to technological enhancements
- amputee: someone who has had a limb, such as a leg, removed
- endoskeleton: an internal skeleton
- bionic: an artificial, electromechanical body part
- degrees of freedom: the number of independent movements a robot can make, depending on how many directions it can move along its joints or axes
- AI: Artificial Intelligence or machine learning, where a computer learns things and solves complex problems by processing and interpreting huge amounts of data
- ecosystem: the way different beings or systems interact with one another in an environment
- calibration: checking or measuring an instrument to see if it is correct
EXTRA READING
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QUICK QUIZ
1. What is it about Xpeng’s Iron robot that has people questioning if it is fake?
2. How did Xpeng try to prove to the audience at the launch of Iron that the robot was real?
3. What are some of the features of Iron that Xpeng says give it its human-like movement?
4. What is the name of Russia’s first AI-powered humanoid robot?
5. What was to blame for the robot’s fall at its launch, according to Idol’s CEO Vladimir Vitukhin?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Find out what real humans think
Write a list of questions that you could ask people you know, to find out their opinions on humanoid robots. Your questions should be insightful with an aim to find out whether people think these types of robots are a positive or negative technological development and the reasons for their opinions.
Pose your questions to as many people as you can over the course of a week, then summarise the key things you found out.
Time: allow 2 x 30 minutes to complete this activity (with a one week interval)
Curriculum Links: English; Design and Technologies
2. Extension
Write a short story set in a future 20 years from now, where humanoid robots are common. Show your audience how human life may be better or worse due to this technology.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Design and Technologies
VCOP ACTIVITY
Wow word recycle
There are plenty of wow words (ambitious pieces of vocabulary) being used in the article. Some are in the glossary, but there might be extra ones from the article that you think are exceptional as well.
Identify all the words in the article that you think are not common words, and particularly good choices for the writer to have chosen.
Select three words you have highlighted to recycle into your own sentences.
If any of the words you identified are not in the glossary, write up your own glossary for them.
Extension
Find a bland sentence from the article to up-level. Can you add more detail and description? Can you replace any base words with more specific synonyms?
Down-level for a younger audience. Find a sentence in the article that is high level. Now rewrite it for a younger audience so they can understand the words without using the glossary.