A bipedal humanoid robot finished a half marathon in China in under 51 minutes, underscoring rapid advancements in the country’s physical AI sector.
The winner, made by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, beat the fastest-ever human half marathon time — with the caveat that the robot crashed and had to be helped by humans and was telecontrolled, rather than being fully autonomous.
Still, Sunday’s race in Beijing marked an improvement from last year, when only six of the 21 participating humanoids completed the race, and the fastest took two hours and 40 minutes to finish.
China has made robotics a national priority, but despite flashy events like the half marathon, the country’s software still lags behind the US’, analysts said.