The second World Humanoid Robot Games, held in Beijing from 22–26 August, showcased both striking progress and glaring limitations in humanoid robotics, as sprinting robots broke human records while others crashed, fell apart or caught fire. Organised with backing from Chinese state media and the Beijing city government, the event highlights China's push to demonstrate the commercial potential of its rapidly developing robotics industry, even as experts caution that these machines remain narrowly engineered for single tasks rather than genuine general-purpose autonomy.

Robots surpassed human world records in the 100-metre sprint and standing high jump this year, having lagged behind human benchmarks at the inaugural 2025 games, which experts say reflects real advances in whole-body robotic control. However, sprinting robots could not slow down after crossing the finish line, often crashing into barriers or falling apart because they were optimised purely to complete the race, not to stop safely. One standout was an X-Humanoid robot that went viral for winning a 400-metre race using an unusual "shy person" running posture, developed through reinforcement learning. The games also introduced more mundane household chore challenges, such as laundry-washing and folding, where robots performed markedly slower than humans — a benchmark researchers suggest may prove more meaningful than flashy but narrowly engineered feats like racing.