Technology

Credit: UFB

Several technology milestones – AI agents, the march of robotics, smart glasses challenging VR, trade wars, and Chinese EVs – will secure 2025’s space in tech history. But there are always remarkable stories that didn’t receive as much attention, such as Amazon launching satellites for its Starlink rival, holograms becoming interactive, and birdsong being able to store data.

Step aside, gladiators. The robots are here to entertain us in the guise of the Ultimate Fighting Bots (UFB) league, a nascent project brewing in San Francisco’s basements. Robot battles are not new. The first official robot fight was hosted in 1989 at the MileHiCon convention, and there have been tournaments and television shows dedicated to brawling machines. But UFB goes a step further, combining robots with people in VR gear who guide the machines in their savage encounters.