Why did Atom indicate that he could understand Max at the beginning of Real Steel?

Question

In the movie Real Steel, a boy named Max salvages an obsolete sparring robot called Atom and, with the help of his father and the father's mechanic/girlfriend, restores it to working condition. Shortly thereafter, Max goes jogging with Atom, has it pick him up, and asks "Can you understand me?"

The robot, though it has no audio circuitry that we know of at this point of the movie, nods.

The issue is never mentioned again.

What on earth does Atom's nod signify? Is the robot sentient? Is it psychic?

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Additional details

1) The scene takes place at 45:43. Max asks the robot "Can you understand me?" It responds with an ambiguous noise and a slight nod. It does not appear as though Max has triggered this with any nod of his own. "Don't worry," Max continues, "your secret's safe with me."

2) Later in movie, during the climactic fight with the robot Zeus, it seems as though Atom responds to Max's entreaties to get off the mat, though Max was not wearing headphones or a control mic at the time.

3) Atom seemed to be looking at himself in the mirror when left alone before entering to fight with league robot "Twin City".

4) Atom's head was bent, as though in sadness, when Charlie looked him through the rear view mirror of the car after he left Max.

Answer 1

Found similar question in Scifi and borrowing DavRob60's answer from there shamelessly.

We don't know for sure, and it's intentional : here is an quote from an Interview: ‘Real Steel’ by Director Shawn Levy.

SR: The idea of Atom’s sentience is introduced in the film, but is never fully explored, was that a conscious decision?

I had three versions of the movie. One Atom is alive, confirmed, a soulful, sentient being. Two, we confirm that Atom is just a machine regardless of what this boy believes, and three, maybe. Maybe the boy is right, but maybe he isn’t and we will never know and obviously I went with version three. Because when I confirmed or denied Atom’s consciousness the movie lost a certain magic. I think it’s epitomized in the scene where Atom is alone in the locker room and he’s looking at himself in the mirror. Some people think they see him move, and some people don’t.

Answer 2

I noticed at the end of the fight with Zeus and Atom when Hugh Jackman was telling max "I need you to know" it seemed like he was about to say "I didnt..." being cut off with Max's remark "your secrets safe with me." My thought was he was about to say "I didnt fight the last round"

just something i caught and thought could mean something