Robots just ran the Beijing half-marathon faster than the world record holder

By Rachit Agarwal Published April 19, 2026

humanoid robot running a marathon — Andy Wong / AP

A humanoid robot just ran a half-marathon faster than the world record holder. It might not seem impressive at first, but considering last year, the fastest robot at Beijing’s humanoid robot half-marathon finished in two hours and 40 minutes, this is a huge achievement.

As reported by the Associated Press, the winning robot at this year’s Beijing half-marathon crossed the finish line in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, comfortably beating the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo.

Recommended Videos

That’s a dramatic improvement in just 12 months, and it’s sparking lively debate.

Who built the winning robot?

The winning robot was built by Honor, the Chinese smartphone maker known for making unconventional and innovative phones. Yes, the same company that makes phones is now building robots that outrun world-class human athletes.

Here’s the twist, though. The winner wasn’t actually the fastest robot on the track. Another robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds, but it was remote-controlled. The robot that took the top spot ran the race autonomously, and the final rankings used a weighted scoring system that factored that in.

About 40% of the robots in the race competed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remotely controlled. Not everything went smoothly. One robot fell at the starting line, and another ran straight into a barrier.

Is it fair to compare robots and humans?

Honestly, probably not. But we have been doing this for ages. It was big news when IBM’s Deep Blue became the first computer to defeat a world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, and when DeepMind’s AlphaGo started beating top-ranked human Go players.

If you believe in folklore, the machine-versus-human competition started way back in the 1870s, when the legend of John Henry was born. He competed with a steam-powered drilling machine to prove humans were superior. A competition he won, but paid the price with his life.

No matter how you feel about this, one cannot deny that it’s incredible to see how far robots have come in just a decade, and that instills both excitement and fear.

Rachit is a seasoned tech journalist with over ten years of experience covering the consumer technology landscape.

Topics

Emerging Tech

Your future AR glasses might finally stop making the real world look weird

Researchers have developed a new display technique that keeps virtual objects realistic without dimming the real world.

Samsung AR Glasses

One of the biggest promises of augmented reality is blending digital objects seamlessly into the real world. Ironically, today's AR glasses often make the real world harder to see. Researchers at the Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) in Japan, led by Assistant Professor Xiaodan Hu in collaboration with Dr. Yan Zhang and Professor Xubo Yang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and Professor Kiyoshi Kiyokawa from Japan's Nara Institute of Science and Technology, have developed a new AR display technique that aims to make virtual objects look realistic without reducing visibility of the real world. The study was published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

The biggest AR problem isn't virtual objects; it's everything around them

Emerging Tech

Anti-surveillance clothing is getting cheaper, but don’t expect an invisibility cloak

Affordable shirts now claim to confuse facial recognition, although their protection depends heavily on the camera and software watching you

Chart, Plot, Adult

Anti-surveillance clothing is starting to look less like an art-school experiment and more like something you could actually wear outside. Shirts designed to confuse facial recognition systems now cost about as much as ordinary streetwear, although buying one won’t make you disappear.

The Guardian reports that designers are using face-like prints, unusual cuts and infrared lights to interfere with computer vision. These techniques target specific weaknesses, so their success depends on what happens to be watching you.

Emerging Tech

This spinning drone hides in plain sight using a visual illusion

This drone doesn't turn invisible. It tricks your brain into thinking it has.

Phantom Twist

For decades, engineers have chased the dream of an invisible drone. The usual approaches have involved transparent materials, camouflage coatings, or complex optical systems that bend light around an object. Researchers at Northwestern University decided to take a completely different route. Instead of hiding the drone itself, they chose to fool the human eye.

The result is Phantom Twist, an experimental drone that spins so rapidly it almost disappears into the background. It's not technically invisible, but to anyone watching, it looks more like a faint blur than a flying machine.