Editorial – AI Needs Regulation, Not Just Guardrails

Over the weekend of 18-19 April 2026, Beijing staged its second ‘Human and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon’. According to Reuters, more than 300 humanoid robots took part alongside, but segregated from, 12,000 humans ¹.

A Chinese humanoid called ‘Lightning’ ran the distance in 50:26 mins, about seven minutes faster than the men’s human world record set only weeks earlier and, pro rata, faster than the new world record for a full marathon set in London a few weeks later. At one moment during the race, Lightning drifted, clipped a guardrail and fell. It had to be helped up by technicians before continuing. The guardrail did what guardrails are meant to do: it prevented a bigger incident that might have seen Lightning taking out several runners on the ‘human track’.