Chinese robot beats Usain Bolt’s 100m world record at humanoid games

BREAKING: A Chinese humanoid robot has run the 100m in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, beating Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record.

A robot just ran the hundred metres faster than Usain Bolt. 9.39 seconds.

The machine's called Tianzhuo, built by the Beijing Innovation Centre of Humanoid Robotics, and it clocked that time at the World Humanoid Robot Games. Look at these pictures from the track in Beijing, a full field of humanoids on a blue running surface, official timing board and everything. Tianzhuo outran two other Chinese-made robots to take the race.

For context, Bolt's 9.58 has stood since 2009, and here he is, the fastest human who ever lived. Now, before anyone panics, a robot sprinting in a robot race isn't the same as a man doing it in Berlin with the world watching. But the number is the number, and two years ago these things could barely walk without falling over.

The machines aren't coming for our jobs anymore. They're coming for our records.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.