Humanoid robots were still treating humans just a year ago,
but this time they 've taken a remarkable leap, shattering the human record in a half marathon.
At the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, a robot named Lightning crossed the finish line in just 15 minutes and 26
seconds, nearly seven minutes faster than the human world record,
and almost two hours ahead of last year's winning robot.
This year's race also featured a larger field of competitors,
a sharp rise in autonomous navigation, and a higher completion rate even on a more demanding course.
So what's behind this rapid progress in humanoid robotics in China?
How will they evolve in the near future?
And what could that mean to our daily lives?
Hello and welcome to the panel discussion of World Today.
I'm Do Hongyu in Beijing.
To explore these questions and more, we 're joined by John Gunn,
a professor with the University of International Business and Economics,
Mohamed Ali Nasir, professor of economics at the University of Leeds,
and Liu Shaoshan, director of embodied intelligence with the Shenzhen Institute
of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society.
Thank you so much for joining us, dear panelists.
First of all, I'd like to get your very first impressions of this robotics marathon that just finished a few days ago.
So Professor Gong, can we start with you?