Beyond kung fu robots: How cutting-edge tech powered the 2026 Spring Festival Gala

This year's China Media Group (CMG) Spring Festival Gala wowed audiences worldwide with its bold embrace of cutting-edge technology. The show went far beyond the eye-catching debut of kung fu robots. A much deeper technological upgrade is unfolding across the entire production.

Through three major innovations – artificial intelligence (AI), cross-screen interactivity and the integration of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) – the studio was transformed into an immersive stage where reality and digital imagination intertwined, showcasing the boundless potential of embodied intelligence and the sci-tech innovation industry.

Generative AI becomes driving force in content creation

The "Ode to the Flower Deities" performance used AI-generated imagery and live-stage projection technology to bring together ancient seasonal symbols, historical figures and traditional Chinese philosophy. AI-powered spatial expansion technology undertook nearly all 4K visual production, enabling petals to swirl across the studio and seasons to shift in real time, while precisely controlling the growth and perspective of blossoms within moving camera shots.

Powered by CMG's proprietary media large model, AI linked action cues and character imagery through an integrated workflow system. As a result, the Twelve Flower Deities – including well-known figures in Chinese history and literature – appeared in succession between virtual and physical space, offering an innovative reinterpretation of traditional Chinese culture. The segment also featured rich audience interaction. In one scene, the famous poet Lu You, portrayed by an actor, hands a branch of apricot blossoms to a child. The moment it reaches the child's hand, the blossoms bloom, and the entire stage blossoms along with them. Such prop-based and performance-based interactions appear throughout the program, according to Guo Li, director of visual presentation of the Spring Festival Gala.

Cross-screen interactivity realized through discriminative AI

Traditional acrobatics received a high-tech refresh in a spectacular performance by Chinese and Austrian artists. Performers threw juggling clubs to one another and sent spinning diabolos – also known as the Chinese yo-yo – meters into the air before catching them seamlessly.

Infrared LEDs were embedded into the juggling props. Infrared cameras captured their trajectories and, with a delay of less than 0.5 second, transformed the movements into flowing digital brushstrokes across the giant LED screen, turning motion into real-time visual art.

In another performance, a high-precision AI visual tracking system identified intelligent beacons worn by the singer, allowing footprints on the floor screen to ripple outward in real time with every step.

Virtual-physical fusion enables digital and live performers to share same stage

Hyper-realistic digital human technology was integrated into this year's gala for the first time, enabling resonance between digital figures and live performers. Producers generated a highly detailed 3D model of a dance performer within days, using 70 4K cameras to capture light-field imaging. During the show, the performer danced alongside her own digital counterpart.

With AR technology, the gala also brought the countdown bell before viewers' eyes, allowing audiences in the studio and at home to share the midnight moment together. Combined with XR stage production, galloping horses and splendid palace halls appeared so vividly that the boundary between real and virtual became almost imperceptible.

The technological breakthroughs showcased at this year's CMG Spring Festival Gala delivered not only a spectacular cultural feast but also valuable innovation models for the integrated development of media and cultural industries.