GoKawiilis a London-based reporter at The Verge covering all things AI and a Senior Tarbell Fellow. Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes.
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How it started
I’ve admitted my fondness for robot fail videos on Stepback before, and let me tell you the World Humanoid Robot Games did not disappoint.
The five-day event, which wrapped this week in Beijing, brought high drama, and brought it well. One robot, made by smartphone maker Honor, lost a leg mid-sprint, while others tripped in a flurry of sparks. Another finisher ran straight into a crash mat, bounced off it, and promptly burst into flames. In the weightlifting, one robot lost its balance beneath a modest barbell and toppled inexorably into the judges’ table, arms cartoonishly aloft. Robotic cheerleaders tumbled and stumbled through routines, while a separate bot fell off a platform in circumstances that, had it been human, might have looked suspiciously like it was gawking at the performers.
This was only the second World Humanoid Robot Games, though it was already far bigger than the inaugural event last year. Unlike this year, last year’s records were paltry. The winning 100-meter sprint was a glacial 21.50 seconds and the highest standing high jump was just 0.95 meters. In keeping with China’s habit of turning robots into public spectacle — from intricate dances at a Spring Festival Gala to demos at major tech events — both this and last year’s games were staged in Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, a former Olympic venue.
And a spectacle it was. At most sporting events, contestants losing limbs, careening into walls, catching fire, and regularly being carried away on stretchers — oh, and did I mention catching fire?! — would probably be grounds to stop proceedings. At the Humanoid Robot Games, it was par for the course.
Fire aside, the games were unusual in other ways too. Alongside familiar events like sprinting, football, boxing, and weightlifting were more unusual competitions in bed-making, parcel delivery, shelf stacking, clothes folding, and hammering nails. Aptly, there was a firefighting contest too.
These less standard offerings spoke to the real purpose of the games: getting robots out of the lab and into the messy real-world environments their makers hope they will ultimately work in. And China is making no secret of wanting to lead the way.
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