While the robot’s skills are impressive, the video originally featured a human being.
Image courtesy of @zhijun0763 on X
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A video authentically depicts a humanoid robot beating humans in a game of badminton.
A video allegedly depicting a humanoid robot playing a game of badminton against two human players circulated on social media in early 2025. In the video, the purported robot performs a number of impressive, fast-moving trick shots that imply a professional, masterful level of skill.
Users shared the video across social media platforms like X (archived), Facebook (archived) and TikTok (archived). The popular post on X, when translated using Google Translate from Chinese to English, read, “If a robot made in China were to participate in the Olympics, which country’s athletes would dare to challenge it?”
However, the viral video depicting a robot playing badminton against two human players was digitally manipulated, replacing a third human player with a robot. Therefore, Snopes has rated this claim as fake.
The original video appeared to originate from a Vietnamese TikTok account focused on badminton, which also featured numerous other videos of expert players performing spectacular badminton feats on what appears to be the same court featured in the purported robot video, based on the surroundings and markings on the court.
The video in question was posted (archived) to the account on Dec. 12, 2023, and sits at 14.3 million views as of this writing.
Keen viewers of the manipulated robot video will notice details of the court, movements, sound effects and even the shadow of the robot match the original video exactly, with only the figure itself changed. Certainly an impressive performance on the badminton court, albeit a human one.
The fake video has been shared online since at least December 2023, when the X account for D-Intent Data, whose bio on X reads, “Propaganda and Fake News Detection Centre, A News Data Research Organization, Focusing on Neutral Fact-Checking And Intent Analysis,” made a post (archived) debunking the video.
Further, in a follow-up post (archived), D-Intent Data claimed, “It had nothing to do with robots. INTENT: Users are circulating digitally altered videos as real to get the spotlight on social media using clickbait and project fake technical superiority of China.”
Snopes has debunked a wide variety of viral videos ranging from those using artificial intelligence in order to fabricate stories wholesale to viral satire that some users accept as fact, including an AI-generated video of a big-eyed jellyfish, Barron Trump performing on “America’s Got Talent” and a woman divorcing her husband for booing Taylor Swift.
Sources
Data, Editor D.-Intent. “Digitally Altered Video Shows Robot Playing Badminton Circulated as Real: Fact-Check.” D-Intent Data, 20 Jan. 2024, https://dintentdata.com/1484-digitally-altered-video-shows-robot-playing-badminton-circulated-as-realfact-check/
“Digitally Created Videos Shared as the Visuals of Robots Playing Badminton Game with Humans.” FACTLY, 19 Sept. 2023, https://factly.in/a-digitally-created-video-shared-as-the-visuals-of-a-robot-playing-a-badminton-game-with-humans/
TikTok – Make Your Day. https://www.tiktok.com/@kulbodz/video/7311906663261424898 Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.
