This robot learned football by playing itself for 140 years

Summary
This video, published by Skild AI, demonstrates a humanoid robot playing 1v1 soccer against human opponents in real time. Powered by Skild AI's foundation model (Skild S1 / Skild Brain) trained via simulated self-play, the robot autonomously dribbles, intercepts, defends, and scores goals.

What is shown

• [00:00 - 00:34]: A bipedal humanoid robot marked "autonomous 1x" actively playing soccer 1-on-1 against a human player in a testing arena with "SKILD AI" branding, dynamically tracking the ball, repositioning, and blocking.
• [00:11 - 00:14]: First-person and close-up views showing the robot's lower limbs dribbling, maneuvering around the ball, and defending against a human opponent.
• [00:35 - 00:49]: The humanoid playing on a marked green pitch with mini goal nets, successfully tackling the ball from a human player and kicking it cleanly into the goal.
• [00:50 - 00:55]: Engineers, researchers, and spectators watching in the room celebrating, filming on smartphones, cheering, and applauding the robot's performance, ending on the Skild AI logo.

Claims & numbers

• Autonomous operation: All gameplay clips are labeled with an on-screen indicator reading "autonomous 1x" denoting real-time autonomous operation.
• Training duration: The video title claims the robot "learned football by playing itself for 140 years" (via simulated self-play).

Notable quotes

• [00:46] (Audio commentary overlay): "What a goal! That is..."
• [00:51] (Spectator): "Whoa!"
• [00:53] (Spectator): "That's so sick."

Assessment
This is an official demonstration video from Skild AI highlighting real-world sim-to-real dynamic whole-body locomotion and ball manipulation. The footage is captured at real-time speed ("autonomous 1x") across multiple cuts, showcasing successful autonomous tackling and scoring against human defenders.

Described by gemini-3.8-flash on 2026-09-29 from the video's audio and frames.