Chinese robot breaks human world record in Beijing half-marathon

A Chinese-built humanoid robot hit nan quality half-marathon world grounds successful Beijing connected Sunday, marking a breakthrough infinitesimal successful a high-stakes world title for technological dominance.

A robot developed by Chinese smartphone shaper Honor completed nan 21-kilometer (13-mile) title successful 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating nan quality grounds of astir 57 minutes group by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo past month.

The capacity marked a melodramatic betterment from past year’s inaugural event, erstwhile nan apical robot vanished successful much than 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Dozens of humanoid robots competed alongside astir 12,000 quality runners, navigating a parallel people to debar collisions.

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A robot crosses nan decorativeness statement successful nan Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon held successful nan outskirts of Beijing connected April 19, 2026. (Andy Wong/AP)

Nearly half of nan robots ran utilizing autonomous navigation, while others relied connected distant control, organizers said.

Despite nan breakthrough, nan title still saw glitches, pinch immoderate robots stumbling astatine nan commencement aliases veering into barriers.

Engineers said nan winning robot was designed to mimic elite athletes, featuring agelong legs of astir 37 inches and advanced cooling systems to prolong performance.

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"Looking ahead, immoderate of these technologies mightiness beryllium transferred to different areas," said Du Xiaodi, an technologist pinch nan Honor team. "For example, structural reliability and liquid-cooling exertion could beryllium applied successful early business scenarios."

Team members observe adjacent to nan winning Honor Lightning humanoid robot during a badge ceremonial aft nan 2nd Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon successful Beijing, China, connected April 19, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Spectators reacted pinch a operation of amazement and unease astatine nan machines’ accelerated progress.

"It’s nan first clip robots person surpassed humans, and that’s thing I ne'er imagined," Sun Zhigang, who attended nan arena pinch his son, told The Associated Press.

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"The robots' velocity acold exceeds that of humans," spectator Wang Wen told nan outlet. "This whitethorn awesome nan presence of benignant of a caller era."

A robot starts alongside quality runners astatine nan Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon connected nan outskirts of Beijing connected April 19, 2026. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

Experts opportunity nan title highlights China’s accelerating push to predominate robotics and artificial intelligence, moreover arsenic wide commercialized usage of humanoid robots remains limited, according to Reuters. The experts said Chinese robotics firms are still moving to create nan AI package needed for humanoids to lucifer nan ratio of quality mill workers.

Runners return pictures of a humanoid robot during nan 2nd Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon successful Beijing connected April 19, 2026. (Haruna Furuhashi/Pool Photo via AP)

"The early will decidedly beryllium an AI era," engineering student Chu Tianqi told Reuters. "If group don't cognize really to usage AI now … they will decidedly go obsolete."

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The title underscores a broader technological title between China and nan United States, arsenic Beijing invests heavy successful precocious robotics arsenic portion of its semipermanent economical strategy.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.