A humanoid robot just beat Usain Bolt’s 100m record, and roboticists are unimpressed for good reason

The X-Humanoid robot from Beijing ran 100 m in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games, beating Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second record, and cleared a 2.88-m high jump, surpassing Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45-m mark. Only 38% of entries operated without remote control, and experts say genuine progress will require robots to handle unfamiliar, unstructured environments rather than follow pre-programmed courses.