Fist-Pumping Humanoid Robots Play Soccer Badly in Beijing

They looked like tipsy 7-year-olds stumbling about the soccer pitch. But the game that unfolded at an industrial zone in Beijing was a breakthrough for humanoid robots and the artificial intelligence that powered them through a 5-3 match on Saturday.

Clad in black and purple jerseys with individual player numbers, diminutive humanoids faced off for two 10-minute halves, their movements controlled not by gesticulating coaches on the sidelines but by built-in algorithms.