The age of physical AI
In April, records were broken in two long-distance running events, but only one of these can be attributed to the performance of a human being. On the 26th, at the London Marathon, two runners broke the two-hour barrier, which had previously been considered impossible under competitive conditions. Kenyan runner Sebastian Sawe set a new world record with a time of 1:59:30.
A week earlier, roughly 12,000 people and 300 humanoid robots lined up at the start of the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon. The runner who won the human field with a time of 1:07:47 finished more than 17 minutes behind the fastest humanoid, named Lightning. The level of the robot field has improved dramatically compared to last year’s debut race, which the fastest robot completed in 2:40:42—a time that was still well behind the human field at the time.
This story may be a sign of a larger trend
More than 750,000 robots are now working alongside human workers in Amazon’s warehouses. Most of these are not the humanoid robots familiar from sci-fi movies, but rather short, disc-shaped units that move shelves and sort packages. The presence of robots is also becoming an increasingly common sight in airport terminals. At an airport in Seoul, autonomous baggage handlers escort passengers to the gate; in Tokyo, cleaning robots patrol the terminals at night; and at Munich Airport, information robots answer passengers’ questions in four languages. The message here is that robots are increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives, and the parallel development of artificial intelligence and robotics – which operate seamlessly in the real world – will only reinforce this trend.
Men’s half marathon world record. From human peaks to humanoid robot victory (1998-2026)
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