The Haibao robot is also good at "poem solitaire," a game during which one person says the first few lines of a poem and the other recites the remaining part. Even with five ancient Chinese poems, the boy could not defeat the robot.

More than 30 Haibao robots are deployed at Shanghai's two international airports and at the entrances to major Expo venues, the first large-scale use of robots at a public event in China, according to Expo organizers.

The 1.55-meter-tall robots have touch screens on their chests to answer inquiries about the Expo in six languages, and they can even take photos for visitors.

"Many people came to have a look when we put one Haibao robot in Zhejiang University," said Zheng Hongbo, general manager at the robotics division at Zhejiang-based Supcon Research Co. Ltd, one of the Haibao robot's key developers.

"The answer the robot gives depends on the question it is given," he said.

Over half year of training, the robot had learned 3,200 dialogues in both Chinese and English and can introduce itself in French, German, Japanese and Korean.

"If you ask what gender it is, it will answer, 'It doesn't matter'," Zheng laughed.

"With tens of millions of visitors, I believe the Expo will hasten the coming of the robot age to China, because the event is rapidly raise people's awareness about robots," he said.

The cost to produce a Haibao robot is roughly the same as a medium-priced car, according to Zheng.

"We hope we can cut the cost to around 10,000 yuan ($1,465) in the near future. The spread and popularization of robots will not be slower than that of computers,"  he predicted.