Photo by Steward Masweneng on Unsplash
Humanoid Robots Run First Half Marathon Alongside Humans In Beijing
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Humanoid robots ran for the first time in a half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday. Twenty-one bipedal machines from different makers joined thousands of human runners in the 21.1-kilometer course.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- 21 humanoid robots run a half marathon alongside humans for the first time in Beijing.
- The robot winner was Tiangong Ultra, built by the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics.
- The machine Ultra finished the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
According to Reuters , the record of the first robot that made it to the finish line was 2 hours and 40 minutes, accomplished by Tiangong Ultra from the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics. The winner of the human race finished in 1 hour and 2 minutes.
The robot participants were of different shapes and sizes, one of the tallest measured 1.80 meters (5.9 ft), and there were humanoid machines as short as 1.20 meters (3.9 ft.
“The robots are running very well, very stable … I feel I’m witnessing the evolution of robots and AI,” said He Sishu, one of the spectators who works in AI.
Humanoid robots competed against humans in a Beijing half-marathon — and lost. Here are the highlights (and lowlights). pic.twitter.com/tLmJl4Qeun — DW News (@dwnews) April 21, 2025
The race had been rescheduled from April 13 to April 19 due to weather conditions, as a cold front with extreme winds was expected for that day. This Saturday, even with better weather conditions, not all robots made it to the finish line. One of the robots fell at the beginning and struggled to continue, and another crashed into a railing.
According to AP , all robots were accompanied by human navigators and had their lane, separated from human runners with a divider as a safety precaution.
China has been making major investments in AI and robotics to develop new strategies for economic growth. Last year, China hosted the World Robot Conference (WRC) 2024 in Beijing , where multiple organizations and companies—including Tesla—showcased impressive humanoid robots.
The recent race was another way to demonstrate developments and new achievements in the sector. “A focus going forward for us will be industrial applications for humanoid robots so they can truly enter factories, business scenarios, and finally households,” said Tang Jian, chief technology officer for the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics.
Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash
Swiss Researchers Use AI to Identify Planetary Systems That Could Host Life
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Swiss researchers from the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS (NCCR PlanetS) built an AI model to detect potentially habitable planets and published a paper in the journal Astronomy and & Astrophysics with details of their research this month.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Swiss researchers built a machine learning model to detect Earth-like planets in planetary systems.
- The AI model found 44 planetary systems that host at least one planet with the required conditions.
- This research can accelerate the chances of finding another habitable planet.
According to the paper , the scientists’ goal was to “predict which stars are most likely to host an Earth-like planet (ELP)” using AI. The team trained a Random Forest, a machine learning algorithm, to classify ELPs with a “not hosting” and “hosting” criterion.
The machine learning-powered model was used first in synthetic planetary systems developed with the Bern Model, and then in real systems. The AI model proved 99% accurate, and found 44 planetary systems that could host at least one Earth-like planet.
“The excellent results obtained from the tests conducted on the ML model demonstrate its ability to recognise the typical architectures of systems with or without ELPs within populations derived from the Bern model,” states the document.
According to Forbes , this research could accelerate the chances of finding another habitable planet and revolutionize progress in this search.
“It’s one of the few models worldwide with this level of complexity and depth, enabling predictive studies like ours,” said co-author Dr. Yann Alibert, co-director of the University of Bern’s Centre for Space and Habitability, as reported by Forbes. “This is a significant step in the search for planets with conditions favorable to life and, ultimately, for the search for life in the universe.”
According to Futurism , up until now, scientists have confirmed the existence of 5,800 planets outside our solar system, and exoplanets are extremely difficult to detect. This new research makes major progress in the field, but there is still much to be specified and developed.
Space companies, such as SpaceX, have been studying and developing technologies to take humans to other planets. SpaceX announced last year that it expects to launch uncrewed rockets to Mars in the next two years, followed by crewed models in the next 5 if everything goes according to plan.
