Chinese technology consultant Kenneth Ren is training tomorrow’s workforce.
The only thing is, they are not human.
“We’re actually teaching robots to think for themselves,” Ren, an overseas solutions specialist with RealMan Intelligent Technology told CNBC recently at the Beijing-based Humanoid Robot Data Training Center.
Ren is helping to run what Chinese state media describes as a “school for human robots” as China looks to develop its robots for more than just entertainment and work.
Humanoid robots are part of the Chinese Communist Party’s broader industrial strategy. In the same way that Beijing has targeted electric vehicles and artificial intelligence as key technologies of the future, policymakers have identified humanoid robots as an area that China should focus on in 2030 to ensure that the country dominates global markets and supply chains.
“China’s next-generation industrial policy represents a shift from targeted industrial intervention to what can be described as ‘everything industrial policy,'” the US Chamber of Commerce and research firm Rhodium Group wrote in a May 11 research report.
The Beijing center, supported by the city government and part of a network of similar centers across China, trains robots to be ready to work in a variety of situations.
A worker trains a humanoid industrial robot at the humanoid robot data training center in Shougang Park on March 27, 2025 in Beijing, China.
VCG | China News Service | Getty Images
Fudi Luo is one of its hundred or so teachers.
A former art teacher, Luo teaches his cyborg students how to organize things on a factory line. Using cameras, controllers and motion capture, he and other instructors guide their AI-powered students through activities, repeating the actions multiple times.
“In the beginning, the robot has no knowledge, so I have to control it manually. But when my movements generate data, the robot learns and can do the work itself,” he said.
Robots are taught skills such as housekeeping, massage, store shelving, and metalworking. Luo says a typical day is 8 hours of repetitive motion.
“The robot doesn’t know what fatigue is, but I do!” he jokes.
On the same campus where the Chinese capital is developing robots, Beijing Inspire-Robots Technology is training robot hands with motion tracking and sensors.
Humanoid robot learns to sort items on shelves at humanoid robot data training center on Jan. 12, 2026 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China.
Zhang Jingang Visual China Group | Getty Images
Winston Zou, secretary of the company’s board of directors, told CNBC that on average, the hand will train 10,000 times to learn a new skill.
“Our current robotic hand can pick up an egg or small objects and lift a string,” Zou said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk told investors during the American company’s fourth-quarter call in January that its Optimus humanoid robots were superior to China’s because of their manual design, which he said was “the hardest thing” to get a robot right. But he acknowledged China’s push in the sector.
“Until now, the biggest competition for humanoid robots will come from China. China has an incredible ability to scale up production,” he said.
In China, training is not only at school but at work.
AI-powered robots get test runs working as restaurant chefs, bartenders, waiters, traffic police, and bodega owners.
For now, most robots rely on human assistance, although their proponents say it’s only a matter of time before droids can perform tasks on their own.
“Our aim is to do jobs that are dangerous for people or repetitive jobs that people are unwilling or afraid to do,” said Ren at the center. “We do not intend to change people in any sector.”
