Are Chinese robots making history?

At the humanoid robot Olympics held in China, robots are running, playing football, boxing, and competing against one another. We are no longer looking at machines that we applaud for taking a few steps. There are robots that have begun to challenge what the human body can do. The speed achieved by the Chinese humanoid robot Tiangong Ultra in the 100-meter race is so striking that it is even being compared to Usain Bolt's human world record. The message China is sending to the world is crystal clear: We are no longer just making robots; we are making machines that will challenge the physical limits of humans.

Then, some of these robots go to America.

Chinese Unitree robots appear on the America’s Got Talent stage. At first glance, you might think you are watching a dance performance. Yet, if you look closely, you realize it is a kung-fu choreography aestheticized with dance. The robots fly through the air, throw kicks, perform martial arts moves, and showcase their balance and physical agility. Moreover, they do this so impressively that the audience gives them a standing ovation.

Then you look at American robots.

One is carrying a grocery bag.

Another is folding laundry at home. Boston Dynamics' robot comes out and dances. They have the Tesla Optimus hold an egg, carry items, and work alongside humans. While the Chinese robot is doing kung-fu and throwing kicks, the American robot is coming home with a bag in its hand.

At first glance, the thought that comes to mind is: China has won this race!!!

When we look at the issue solely in terms of motor power, balance, speed, artificial intelligence, and engineering, we are overlooking something very important. Technology also has a soul. Or rather, the society that creates the technology adds something of its own soul to it.

This is what I call the soul of races.

I am talking about cultures, political structures, and their view of humanity. The Western world's historical trauma regarding racism has made it almost impossible to construct such a sentence today. The moment you make such a comparison between human communities and cultures, the concept you use is questioned before the content of the discussion. Yet, analytically, we must be able to describe the image standing before us.

The Chinese robot competes with humans.

It does kung-fu.

It throws kicks.

The American robot, on the other hand, carries a person's grocery bag, works in their place at the factory, helps with housework, and then comes out to dance.

Are these choices a coincidence?

Perhaps if you look at the performances one by one, they are. But when you look at the relationship between technology and culture, the question cannot be dismissed so easily.

Because one must also look at China's relationship with the individual.

Jack Ma is one of the symbolic examples of this. The fact that a person who founded Alibaba and became one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs withdrew from the public eye for months following a speech in China criticizing financial regulations, that his companies faced immense state pressure, and that Ma has appeared in a much lower profile in the following years shows us the place of the individual in the face of the system, regardless of how large the technology company is.

The situation of the Uyghur Turks is the much more severe side of this. Here, we are no longer talking about the freedom of an entrepreneur, but about the fundamental rights of human beings.

If China wins this race, it will not just be Chinese robots that win.

The understanding of humanity embedded within the robots will also win.

It is especially important to think about this today. Because when artificial intelligence and robotics merge, what we produce will no longer be just a machine that performs given movements. Machines that perceive their environment, make decisions, interact with humans, and gain increasing autonomy will enter our lives. In such a world, we will have other questions as important as how many kilometers per hour a robot can run: What is a human to it? What is authority? What is obedience? Where do the boundaries of the individual begin? Who does the robot serve? The state, the person who bought it, or the human standing in front of it?

Now, take another look at the American robot carrying a grocery bag with this perspective.

Perhaps what is more important than a robot running faster than a human is that it runs for the human. What is more important than it throwing a harder kick is that it carries the human's burden. What is more important than it defeating the human is that it helps the human.

Marcus Aurelius said about two thousand years ago that our thoughts shape our soul: “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”

What is true for the individual also has a counterpart for societies. Whatever you occupy yourself with today, that will be your life tomorrow.

If you applaud a robot that surpasses humans today, you will live with robots designed to surpass humans tomorrow. If you develop a robot that serves humans today, your chances of living with machines that stand by the side of humans tomorrow will increase.

That is why be careful about which technology you applaud.

Because the technology you applaud today will be your life in the future.

And the robot race is no longer just a technology race.

It is also a matter of ethics, morality, and culture.

Note: Moreover, we are experiencing the same problem in artificial intelligence today. For instance, if I had tried to have ChatGPT write this article, it would have interfered with the structure of the piece with the West's clichéd anti-racist perspective and inserted sentences like "I am not talking about a biological definition of race here," which are contrary to my analytical point of view. In other words, artificial intelligence is not a neutral technology that only processes what we say; it can also carry the traumas, clichés, and even taboos of the culture in which it was developed.

That is why the artificial intelligence and robot race is not just a technology race; it is also a race of culture and morality. Even if we cannot build robots as Turks, we cannot remain outside this side of the race. We must definitely concern ourselves with the issue of which values will be transferred to artificial intelligence and robots, where the human will be placed in the face of these systems, and which culture will be carried into the future through technology. Because in the end, we will not only use the technology of others; we will also live with the worldview embedded within that technology.