The team behind the 'Hermès Agent' responds to plagiarism: Thank you for your support, we will continue to focus on the AI Agent direction

Team responds to plagiarism allegations

The team behind the "Hermès Agent" issued a public response after accusations of plagiarism surfaced online, thanking supporters and saying they will continue to focus on developing AI agents. It has been reported that the statement, circulated on Chinese social platforms, framed the controversy as a distraction from the project’s long-term goals and asked the community for patience while the team clarifies details. Reportedly, no formal legal filings have been announced so far.

Why this matters

AI agents are the next battleground in China’s tech race. Domestic giants such as Baidu (百度) and Alibaba (阿里巴巴) are racing to commercialize agent frameworks, and smaller teams can gain rapid attention — and scrutiny — when their demos go viral. Intellectual property disputes and copycat accusations are increasingly common. How will a small team navigate those pressures, and can they sustain momentum amid tighter U.S. export controls on advanced chips and broader geopolitical tensions that complicate access to talent and hardware?

Related hardware demo and the broader picture

Separately, it has been reported that Zhiyuan Robotics (智元机器人) founder Peng Zhihui (彭志辉) recently showcased the bipedal humanoid Lingxi X2 (灵犀X2) in an interactive demo, highlighting fast command recognition and precise physical interaction. The company says the 1.3m robot combines motion, interaction and task intelligence, and reportedly achieved a difficult Webster flip last year — a milestone the firm described as a global first. The juxtaposition of software-first agent teams and hardware innovators shows China’s growing ecosystem where conversational AI and embodied robotics increasingly converge. The Hermès Agent team says it will keep building in that same agent direction, thanking the community for support as it addresses the allegations.