XHumanoid: A Chinese Bolt To Usain From The Blue

A robot made by a Chinese company, aptly named XHumanoid, has broken the 100 metres record of 9.58 seconds set by Usain Bolt in Berlin in 2009 by 0.19 seconds. That was fast work by any standards. Another robot ran the 400 metres at 39.7 seconds, faster than the present world record of 43.03 seconds.

This is the first instance of human-made machines overtaking humans in physical strength and skill after having downed them in terms of memory and all levels of intellectual skill.

Robots and the future of work

What does the robot Bolt tell us? At first look, yes, sooner rather than later, we all can be dispensed with. To add insult to injury, Elon Musk has said that in about a decade there will not be any jobs, and we humans can sit at home and enjoy the labour of the robots and bots.

But as if to console us that the expected humanoid apocalypse is not yet upon us and to reassure us that the next Olympics will not see a march past of robots, the Chinese company officials have said that “every gain in speed, stability, and precision on the competition floor can bring robots one step closer to becoming genuinely useful beyond it.” Phew!

We are, no doubt, fascinated by these machines which are going to make us irrelevant. It is like a murder victim watching the sharpening of the knife with glee. Robotic athleticism has become big, and robotic games, regularly held in China, are going to outclass the number of social media views that the poor rival, the Human Olympics, gets.

Robots can play tennis and badminton, teach us kung fu, and land the heavyweights amongst us a right hook that can send them reeling. The Indian Olympic Association will do well to figure out if we can send some imported robotic Husain Bolts to the next Olympics wearing our tri-colour jerseys.

At least there will be some medals to show for it. Our quadrennial wailing that a country of one billion gets very few medals will finally come to an end!

Robots reshape stadiums and markets

The stadium is up for a revolution. But what about stock markets? The Chinese company, Unitree Robotics, which is the cause of some of these problems for us by making athletic and sporty robots, debuted on the Shanghai stock exchange last week at 460 per cent above its quoted price.

The market has flipped, no doubt. So have some of the robots made by various Chinese companies, which can do the backflip and the somersault with as much ease as some of our politicians can.

So where do we poor humans stand now? Are we destined to stand aside and cheer the metallic marvels doing the rounds of the stadiums? Will the Olympic contingents travel inside containers full of battery packs? Only the robots can tell.

Published on: Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 09:33 PM IST