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Watching Robots Run a Half-Marathon Is Kind of Hilarious (One of Them Is Freakishly Fast Though)

It turns out a robot beating humans in a race is a lot less inspiring when outrunning people is literally what it was built for.

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A humanoid robot winning a half-marathon sounds like a milestone until you remember what robots are for. In Beijing’s recent humanoid robot half-marathon, a machine named “Lightning,” built by smartphone maker Honor, clocked 50 minutes and 26 seconds over 13.1 miles. It comfortably beat the human world record of 57:20. Another version, remotely controlled, posted an even faster time before immediately crashing into a barrier at the finish line, much like humans after actual marathons.

The headline writers for traditional news outlets tasked with summing up this story in a neat, compact sentence were handed an impossible task. They needed to relay the story’s basic information, but the natural title would seem overly sensational for something that isn’t that impressive. That’s the double-edged sword of a story like this.

A robot that beat the human record for a half-marathon........

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