California is trying to shut down robot vs. human cage matches

The California State Athletic Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter to Rek, a startup that bills itself as "the humanoid robot fighting league," after it hosted a September 18th cage match between human fighter Frankie LaPenna and a humanoid robot piloted by a human via a remote virtual-reality system, as reported by The New York Times. The robot appeared to be an EngineAI unit fitted with a Terminator-like head, and a replay of the fight is available on YouTube.

California is trying to shut down robot vs. human cage matches By Jay PetersSource: The Verge AI https://www.theverge.com The California State Athletic Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter to a startup that hosted a match between a human and a robot last month, as reported by The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/technology/human-robot-cage-fights-california-rek.html . The fight, which took place on September 18th, pitted a human, Frankie LaPenna, against a humanoid robot owned by a tech startup, Rek, that was being piloted by a human using what the NYT described as a "remote virtual-reality system." Rek says it is the "the humanoid robot fighting league" on its website https://rek.com/fights , and the robot appears to be one from EngineAI https://en.engineai.com.cn/ but with a Terminator -like head swapped on top. You can watch a replay of the fight on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rg2sB6ELtk : The CEO of Rek, … Get AI news in your inbox Daily digest of what matters in AI.