Half-fur, half-sailor, all robot—ahead of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference, foreign dignitaries and other high-level delegates were welcomed to the hotel and conference venue by a squadron of androids, led by their “captain,” the “panda sailor.” For these bots, which have undergone rigorous “training” by human experts, complex dance (and Kung Fu) moves are well within their grasp, as proven at this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Developed by Beijing Unitree Robotics, this new generation of walking, talking “protocol droids” (think C-3PO without the shiny, gold plating) not only walk the walk and talk the talk but also feel the feel, thanks to their embodied-intelligence language models (LLMs) that can interpret human emotions in conversation and respond accordingly.

“Hello, I’m Tianyi. What smarts are you bringing to this year’s BFA Annual Conference?”

“Thanks to my motion capabilities, I can be wherever, whenever, to provide guests with directions and other information and ensure that every event goes off without a hitch.”

Tianyi, developed by China Mobile, is another robot featured at this year’s BFA Annual Conference, running patrol and inspection duties. The coordination between the robot itself and a network-based LLM enables it to monitor and speedily solve issues at core conference venues, working more than three times faster than its human counterparts.

Away from the BFA venue in downtown Boao, an army of environmental services droids is busy keeping the sea, land, and air clean to centimeter levels of precision, working as a hive mind. To ensure the environment stays clean as they work, these robots emit zero carbon and consume very little energy.

This year’s annual meet of the BFA, which has been committed to green, intelligent conferences since its inception, comes just as the special customs operations of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) and China’s 15th Five-Year Plan get underway. What message does the welcoming, vibrant FTP have for the world? We’re sure one of the robots has the answer!