A video published by the company on May 29 shows Booster T1 taking shots at a goal inside an indoor training facility. The robot accurately placed the ball into different corners of the net, including one strike powerful enough to damage the lower corner of a wall behind the goal.

Standing about 1.2 meters tall and weighing less than 32 kilograms, it is equipped with force-control sensors throughout its body to improve movement and ball control. Teams using the robot won both gold and silver medals in the adult division of the RoboCup robot football competition in Brazil last year.

Beyond shooting, it was also shown chasing, dribbling and passing the ball, while quickly recovering after falls. The demonstration was part of efforts to develop autonomous humanoid football players capable of operating without remote control, according to People's Daily newspaper.

Booster T1 uses AI to make real-time decisions on the field, its developer said. Through intensive training and analysis of human movement data, it develops what engineers describe as "muscle memory," allowing it to pass, tackle and shoot with greater accuracy.

The project is intended to test how quickly AI systems can adapt to complex and dynamic physical environments.

The video sparked a mix of admiration and concern online after being reposted across social media platforms, according to the New York Post. One user wrote, "This guy doesn’t hold back – is this even football?" Another said they "wouldn’t dare go in goal."

Another Reddit user expressed concern that the robot could be hacked and used to kick someone in the head, adding that such a scenario would mark a "dystopian (de)evolution."

During a recent public demonstration in Xinjiang, western China, a Unitree G1 humanoid robot accidentally kicked a young boy in the stomach. The child was not seriously injured, but his mother said event staff were slow to respond, according to Shanghai Daily.

The incident has renewed debate over the risks of deploying humanoid robots in public spaces, particularly as the machines become more powerful and autonomous.

"The event would be viewed not as comic relief but as a dangerous systems failure," Dr. Roman Yampolskiy, a tenured associate professor and computer scientist at the University of Louisville in the U.S., told the New York Post.

Yampolskiy warned that while glitches in entertainment robots may be relatively harmless, similar failures in robots used for security, healthcare, transportation or industrial work could result in injuries and property damage.