James Price has a useful CAPX piece on robots, their rapid development and how Britain is plodding along at the back somewhere. Well worth reading on our meandering journey through the treacherous green swamps of Fabian Mire.
The robot race is on, and Britain is falling behind
Can a robot write a symphony? Can it turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?”
Can you?
This exchange from the film ‘I, Robot’ (and later parodied in a million memes) captures human fears and concerns about coexisting with robots, and what it means to be human. Fast forward 20 years, and artificial intelligence is getting pretty good at composing both music and paintings, while my artistic efforts are worse than Shia LaBeouf’s performance in that film.
It has been weird to see AI become so effective at these skills before machines have become competent in the physical world, where they have long been hopelessly poor. No longer.
Last weekend, the ‘Lightning’ humanoid robot won the Beijing E-Town Humanoid Half Marathon in 50 minutes 26 seconds, beating Jacob Kiplimo’s human world record by nearly seven minutes. Last year, in the inaugural event, the winning robot took 2hrs 40min 42sec, something even I can just about beat. In 12 months of progress, that is a 70% improvement. As impressively, in 2025’s race, only 6 of 21 robots even finished. Last weekend saw more than 300 robots, including entries from all around the world – 40% ran autonomously.
- Chinese robots are racing in half marathons and we can't even automate the Tube
- Britain can address its robotics lag in a free market way
- There is an existential fear about the future among today’s political class
Can a robot write a symphony? Can it turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?”
Can you?
This exchange from the film ‘I, Robot’ (and later parodied in a million memes) captures human fears and concerns about coexisting with robots, and what it means to be human. Fast forward 20 years, and artificial intelligence is getting pretty good at composing both music and paintings, while my artistic efforts are worse than Shia LaBeouf’s performance in that film.
It has been weird to see AI become so effective at these skills before machines have become competent in the physical world, where they have long been hopelessly poor. No longer.
Last weekend, the ‘Lightning’ humanoid robot won the Beijing E-Town Humanoid Half Marathon in 50 minutes 26 seconds, beating Jacob Kiplimo’s human world record by nearly seven minutes. Last year, in the inaugural event, the winning robot took 2hrs 40min 42sec, something even I can just about beat. In 12 months of progress, that is a 70% improvement. As impressively, in 2025’s race, only 6 of 21 robots even finished. Last weekend saw more than 300 robots, including entries from all around the world – 40% ran autonomously.
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