Science

Robots Can Outrun Humans. But at Home, They Need Our Help

100 m semifinal: the robot Tiangong Ultra clocked a time of 8.86 s. 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games, Beijing, 25 August 2026 // Photo: Tingshu Wang / Reuters / Forum

A humanoid can lose to a dirty sock. Whether robots built in our own image find a place in the world will depend on how well AI copes with the mess of real life.

By Agata Kaźmierska and Wojciech Brzeziński

This August in Beijing, the robot Tiangong Ultra ran 100 meters in 8.86 seconds. Usain Bolt's world record, set in 2009, stands at 9.58 seconds. The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, which built Tiangong, also reported that its robots had broken human records in the 400- and 1,500-meter races.

The progress is genuinely staggering. A year earlier, Tiangong had taken 21.50 seconds over the same distance.

At the same event — the second-ever World Humanoid Robot Games — other robots fell over, fell apart, and had trouble stopping. They also faced tasks resembling real work: serving hotel guests, performing rescue operations, and operating simple equipment. There, however, the robots were far less impressive.

A Ball at the Elevation: What to Do With a Child at Mass

I took the ball away from my daughter — she answered with a shriek. I gave it back — it flew off across the nave. A moment later, the two of us fled the church. By Zuzanna Radzik Mass fell between nap time and lunch. A playground would have suited that slot

Suspects in China, Unwelcome in Kazakhstan: Who Are the Qandas?

They fled to Kazakhstan to escape Chinese repression. But today it's Kazakhstan that hunts them down when they speak up for relatives in China's Xinjiang. A story about people who are strangers everywhere. By Agnieszka Pikulicka, reporting from Kazakhstan Alimnur Turganbay crossed the Kazakh-Chinese border

Your Loneliness Is Their Best-Selling Product

Living alone has become easier and more convenient than ever. Large corporations have built an entire business model around it. By Jakub Dymek There is one thing that the internet — as it forced its way into our lives in the first decade of the 21st century — promised above all else.

What Are Birds Singing About? They Say More Than We Thought

Artificial intelligence has firmly established itself in many fields of science. It may help us uncover the rules governing birdsong — and even its meanings. By Wojciech Mamak For a long time, studying bird communication meant a lot of squinting. The human ear is too slow to catch the split-second

Read more

A Ball at the Elevation: What to Do With a Child at Mass

Suspects in China, Unwelcome in Kazakhstan: Who Are the Qandas?

Your Loneliness Is Their Best-Selling Product

What Are Birds Singing About? They Say More Than We Thought