California's athletic commission tells robot league REK to license any fight with a human in it

Frankie LaPenna stepped into a cage on September 18 to face a humanoid robot with a Terminator head. According to The Verge, another person was steering the robot through what The New York Times described as a "remote virtual-reality system" ^[3]. Dexerto put the machine at six feet tall ^[4]. The Verge said the body appears to be an EngineAI robot with a different head fitted ^[16]. So two people took part in the fight, one in the cage and one at the controls ^[14].

REK pitches something else. Its Instagram calls the company "Real Steel IRL," after the 2011 film set in a future where robots have replaced humans in professional boxing ^[5]. Its website says it is "the humanoid robot fighting league" ^[12]. The pitch is machines hitting machines. The September 18 event was a person in a cage fight, and in California a boxing or martial arts contest involving a person needs the State Athletic Commission's approval and license ^[2].

The commission's letter has two clauses, and both hinge on the same phrase ^[1]. The first orders REK to stop "holding, promoting or advertising any boxing or mixed martial arts contest match, or exhibition, involving any human" in the state without prior approval ^[2]. The second covers "the promotion of, or participation in" such a contest without a license under Business and Professions Code section 18640 ^[2]. Advertising is on the list, so the ticket page is covered. Participation is also on the list, so the wording reaches the fighter as well as the promoter ^[2]. The letter cites sections 18870 and 18878, under which an unlicensed contest is a misdemeanor for anyone required to hold a license ^[13].

Dexerto reported that REK was ordered to cease operations ^[15]. The letter is narrower than that. REK's next card is three robot-versus-robot weapon fights in San Francisco on October 9, with Wolverine-style claws and blades, and Dexerto reported tickets still on sale at $69 ^[10]. The Verge also describes the next match as two armed robots fighting each other ^[11]. As written, the letter's clauses reach contests involving a human, and that card has no human contestant ^[17].

Cix Liv, REK's chief executive, posted the letter himself. "We made it boys," Liv said ^[7]. The Verge dates his post on X to September 30 ^[8]. Dexerto dates it to October 1 and quotes the caption calling it a cease and desist for an "UNSANCTIONED HUMAN VERSUS HUMANOID ROBOT CAGE FIGHT" ^[9].

For a team building physical robot entertainment, the letter answers one question. In California, a human contestant puts the event under the athletic commission, whatever the opponent is made of ^[2]. The sources do not say what a license costs or whether REK has applied.

The test for any format is whether a person can get hit, and where. One axis is whether a human is a contestant. The other is whether the event is in California, the only state this letter covers ^[2]. With a human contestant in California, you need commission approval before the event is advertised ^[2]. A robot-only card in California falls outside the letter's wording ^[17]. Bouts outside California, human or robot-only, are outside this letter, and REK has run matches in the US, Japan and Canada ^[6].

If the draw is a person against a machine, I would plan it as a licensed combat event from the first day. The cost is an approval and licensing step before any ticket goes on sale ^[2]. You also lose the "unsanctioned" label Liv was celebrating ^[9]. The other route is a robot-only card. It stays outside the letter's text but gives up the human-versus-machine bout that brought REK to the commission's attention ^[1].