The Robot Olympics are fucking funny.
The Robot Olympics have wrapped up in Beijing and, judging by the footage coming out of them, humanity can probably relax for another five minutes.
Yes, the robots are getting faster. Much faster. And, to be fair, some of it looks genuinely terrifying.
But then one of them tries to stop.
Fast forward to 1:26 and you’ll see what we mean.
Stopping, turning and generally remaining in one piece after a sprint still appear to be fairly ambitious goals.
The second World Humanoid Robot Games brought 2,056 robots from 666 teams and 16 countries to Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, competing across 51 events spanning sprinting, football, weightlifting, martial arts and real-world tasks.
Naturally, things got hectic pretty quickly.
Robots have been filmed face-planting during races, smashing into padded barriers at full speed and breaking apart in showers of sparks.
One caught fire after a 100-metre event, while another weightlifting competitor lost its balance, toppled towards the judges’ table and was eventually carried away on a stretcher.
Again: the Robot Olympics.
All of which would be very reassuring were it not for one slightly concerning detail.
They are also getting stupidly fast.
Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, ran the 100 metres in 8.64 seconds in the final, following earlier times of 9.39 and 8.86 seconds across the Games.
For context, Usain Bolt’s human world record is 9.58 seconds.
Obviously, it’s not a like-for-like athletics record, but we have officially entered the deeply funny era where a robot can post a faster 100-metre time than the fastest human in history and then immediately require a padded wall to bring itself to a halt.
Which is probably the best summary of where humanoid robotics is at right now.
Very fast. Very impressive.
Still occasionally eating shit.
