They collect trash, fold clothes and learn from mistakes: the robots already working in Chinese homes

Photo taken on May 21, 2026, shows a maid working alongside an X Square robot at a client's home in Beijing
WANG ZHAO/AFP
For Lin Meiqiong, who cleans apartments in Beijing, things got easier when she gained an unexpected colleague: a robot on wheels powered by artificial intelligence.
The 56-year-old woman and her white and silver companion, equipped with cameras and two mechanical claws, are part of a hybrid cleaning team - human and robotic - offered by the Chinese platform 58.com.
It's a small step towards a future in which robots take on more manual tasks. For now, however, these services are mainly about collecting data for companies and piquing customers' curiosity.
"It's definitely different," Lin told AFP. "Before, I did everything alone. It reduced the load a little."
The service, the result of a partnership between 58.com and robotics company X Square, costs 149 yuan (R$114) for three hours and is available in Beijing and Shenzhen.
The Quanta The task takes several minutes, and the result is reminiscent of a child learning to fold parts for the first time.
According to engineer Hu Bowen, future versions will respond to voice commands and be able to talk.
Better than a laboratory
Around 200 households have signed up for the service since its launch in March.
Tan Pei, an advertising professional, hired the robot to clean his apartment because he wanted to "see what it could do."
"Although it isn't perfect, some things surprised me," he said, citing the fact that he folded a pair of pants "very well."
Chinese robots impress in dance and martial arts performances, but their performance in real-life situations is still limited.
Photo taken on May 21, 2026, shows a maid working alongside an X Square robot in a customer's home in Beijing
WANG ZHAO/AFP
For companies like X Square, launching an imperfect service helps collect data to develop so-called embedded artificial intelligence.
Unlike large language models trained with internet content, robots do not yet have comparable sets of real-world data.
"We don't yet have an internet of robots," Christoforos Mavrogiannis, from the University of Michigan, explained to AFP. unknowns."
"This is very challenging, but this data helps a lot in the development of the robot."
Photo taken on May 21, 2026, shows an X Square robot folding clothes in a customer's home in Beijing
WANG ZHAO/AFP
With increasing investment in embedded AI, China is also testing robots that guide traffic in cities like Hangzhou.
The company GigaAI plans to send 100 robots this year to homes in Wuhan to free cleaning tests.
Investors have allocated more than 57 billion yuan (R$43.7 billion) to the Chinese embedded AI industry this year, more than in the whole of last year, according to the ITjuzi database.
Very early stage
There are still many obstacles to the popularization of these devices.
As the Quanta X1 Pro showed when folding clothes, robots still cannot match human skill.
"Many companies are working on developing hands We don't know where the data will go, where it will be stored (...) nor who will have access to that information," notes Valeria Alessandra Macalupu Chira, from the Queensland University of Technology.
The security of customers and their homes also remains an problem.
"I think we're still at a very early stage," said Yang Jianfei, from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
Now on g1
According to him, robots still require human supervision for emergency braking functions and there are no industry-wide recognized safety standards.
Experts agree that large-scale acceptance of these robots is still a long way off.
When asked about the possibility of robots revolutionizing her profession, Lin doesn't seem to worried.
"Compared to people, it's obvious that he's not at the same level," she said. "After all, it is a robot."
Photo, taken on May 21, 2026, shows an X Square robot organizing items on a shelf in a customer's home in Beijing.
WANG ZHAO/AFP
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Source: G1