Tech

2,056 Humanoid Robots From 16 Countries Head to Beijing for World Robot Games

Published

1 hour ago

August 20, 2026

More than 2,000 humanoid robots are heading to Beijing to sprint, lift weights, play table tennis, and tackle jobs that look increasingly like real work.

The second World Humanoid Robot Games will run Aug. 22-26 at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, with organizers listing 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries. That is more than four times the robot field at the inaugural 2025 event.

Despite participation from 16 countries, the field remains overwhelmingly Chinese. Organizers list 641 Chinese teams and 1,975 domestic robots, representing 157 companies and 200 research institutions and universities.

Entries from the United States, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and other countries make the competition international in scope, but the numbers also underline the scale of China’s domestic push into humanoid robotics.

Stricter rules and real-world arenas

Organizers have tightened autonomy rules to force real technical maturation. Remote control is barred from most track and competitive events, and 100-meter dash time limits dropped from three minutes to one.

According to CGTN, the games feature 51 events and 1,301 matches spanning five days, up from 26 events last year. New athletic competitions include table tennis, weightlifting, long jump, and tug-of-war.

Beyond athletics, scenario-based events increased from six to 21, challenging robots across nine simulated environments including hotels, factories, libraries, and retail centers. Specialized contests test fine motor skills like cable routing and tool assembly.

“Once robots master these ‘last-meter’ skills, they can turn medals into orders and move directly from the competition arena to real-world workplaces,” said Jiang Guangzhi, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, according to the Global Times.

More must-read AI coverage

From track records to factory floors

The games arrive on the heels of major physical breakthroughs in the sector. During the Beijing Half Marathon in April, an autonomous bipedal machine named “Lightning” ran the distance in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating human world records.

However, moving from open tracks to messy real-world workspaces presents distinct trade-offs. While public events draw scrutiny over municipal budgets, robotics executives argue the trials accelerate progress.

Shao Yuanxin, founder of Rob-Stride Dynamics, said “these events could help the industry collect high-level data, showcase their capabilities, train more talented personnel and create job opportunities for China,” China Daily reported.

The industrialization bridge

The steep increase in autonomy thresholds and the rise of scenario-based tasks mark an important turning point for commercial robotics. For enterprise buyers, high-profile competitions serve less as entertainment and more as stress tests for hardware durability, power efficiency, and spatial reasoning under unpredictable conditions.

The core challenge for robotics manufacturers is no longer merely balance or raw locomotion, but whether general-purpose machines can reliably handle high-dexterity labor at an economical cost. By tying scoring models to autonomy and practical execution, these games offer a public benchmark that will help enterprises separate viable commercial automation platforms from promotional prototypes.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on our sister publication, eWeek.

Tech

The 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 is here — see who made the cut

Published

10 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

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We’re thrilled to unveil the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 — TechCrunch’s annual, handpicked list of the 200 most promising early-stage startups from around the world.

These founders rose to the top from thousands of applications spanning every industry and geography. Their reward? A coveted spot to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, taking place October 13–15 in San Francisco’s Moscone West. This is the cohort to watch — and this fall, you’ll get to meet them in person.

From AI to climate, health to fintech, robotics to consumer — these are the companies shaping the future across every major category.

A special thank-you to Google for Startups and SAP, our premier sponsors, for helping early-stage startups build, scale, and succeed.

Only at Disrupt can you:

Watch live demos of never-before-seen tech.
See Battlefield companies pitch in front of top global VCs.
Cheer them on as they compete for $100,000, equity-free, and the iconic Disrupt Cup.

Are you a VC scouting the next breakout investment? A tech enthusiast looking to stay ahead of the curve? An early-stage founder who missed the Startup Battlefield 200 application deadline because you were too busy building a robot in your garage?

Step onto the battlefield. Join us at Disrupt 2026. Register for your ticket before prices go up in September.

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

Presenting the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200

Every year, Startup Battlefield alumni go on to build category-defining companies — including Dropbox, Cloudflare, and Discord. With over $32 billion raised and 250 exits, the Startup Battlefield track record speaks for itself.

The top 20 finalists from this list will be revealed live on Day 1 of Disrupt on October 13, so be sure to follow along.

If you’ve applied for Startup Battlefield this year

If your startup made the list, keep an eye on your inbox — we’ll be in touch shortly with time-sensitive next steps. If you applied but don’t see your company here, you’ll also receive an official update from us soon. Due to the high volume of submissions, we’re unable to respond to individual application inquiries.

As for the rest of you …

Witness Startup Battlefield 200 live at Disrupt 2026

Get out of your inbox and get ahead of the game at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Secure your spot at TechCrunch Disrupt. Prices will go up in September.

Startup Battlefield is proudly presented by Google for Startups and SAP, our premier sponsors.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Tech

Senators demand answers from TikTok over experiment that disabled safeguards

Published

14 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

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Two senators have given TikTok a deadline to answer questions about an experiment that withheld a safety feature from 15 million U.S. users, including a teenager who later died by suicide.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, CEO of the company’s U.S. business, calling the company’s decision to run the experiment “depraved.”

Bloomberg reported that TikTok intentionally disabled an algorithmic safeguard for 10% of U.S. users, creating a control group for the experiment. The safeguard was designed to prevent users from being overwhelmed by harmful content, but TikTok wanted to determine whether it made the app less engaging, so it decided to conduct the experiment.

One of the people in the control group was 16-year-old Chase Nasca, whose algorithm fed him thousands of videos about sadness, suicide, and loneliness up until he died by suicide.

The senators are demanding answers to 13 questions regarding the experiment, including names of every employee who knew about the experiment and why TikTok allowed minors to be part of the control group. They’re also looking for a list of every algorithmic experiment in the U.S. when the social network disabled or delayed a safety feature. The senators have given TikTok until September 1 to respond.

TikTok did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Tech

Patreon launches 30 new creator features, including short-form Clips and revamped discovery

Published

21 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

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The team at Patreon, the membership platform for creators, has been building like crazy and is now revealing the result. On Thursday, the company debuted dozens of new features to help creators get discovered, build their community, learn from insights, and more.

Patreon says its roadmap is meant to reflect the core philosophy that today’s internet has failed creators by prioritizing fleeting engagement over genuine community, making it hard for creators to be fairly paid.

“The current version of the web is a failed promise for creators and fandoms. As creators, we can’t even reach our followers on the platforms anymore,” wrote Patreon CEO Jack Conte in an announcement about the new features. “Social media has created mass polarization, addiction, and made it increasingly difficult to build a creative community and business. I refuse to believe that this is the best or only way that the internet can work for creators and fans. I believe it can and should be better,” he added.

Patreon’s changes, however, acknowledge the role that short-form video platforms, like TikTok or Reels, play in helping creators find an audience.

To make that discovery easier, it’s rolling out a feature on iOS called Clips, which will turn creators’ videos into short, shareable clips. These can be downloaded and shared off-platform, as on TikTok, or posted as Patreon’s own short-form post format, known as Quip.

Plus, creators will be able to leverage new tools that offer potential fans more previews of their work.

The tools, which are still in early testing, include suggested video previews, which will pull out the most engaging parts of their paid videos, and another that lets creators quote snippets of their longer written posts into Quips. The video previews can be shown to fans who are weighing whether or not to pay to unlock the content or subscribe to a membership, while the text-based, quote Quips can be shared as previews to the Home feed, offering creators more exposure.

Native video and Quips are also now rolling out to creators of adult (18+) content.

Another significant change in today’s update involves Patreon’s discovery algorithm.

Before, the company’s recommendation systems focused on finding creators similar to those the user already liked, but it tended to favor larger creators. Now, discovery will focus more on comparing a particular post to other posts by topic, craft, style, theme, and other factors. Patreon says this will help to highlight smaller creators, too.

The company is also rolling out several new features designed to deepen fandoms and help make Patreon more of a destination.

The highlight here is a new communities feature called Niches, which allows creators to participate in dedicated, topic-based communities built around specific interests, subcultures, or fandoms. This could help fans discover more of what they like, without needing to dig around the site to find all the different creators focused on the topic at hand.

Patreon will also roll out other tools, like support for Live Q&As on creator livestreams, and tools that let fans make their own profiles. (Those profiles and the communities are now in early testing, while the Live Q&As are now arriving.)

Another set of tools will help creators track their audience and earnings, which can be key to developing a healthy fandom.

Patreon is launching more granular earnings, membership, and growth analytics, with an earnings tab that breaks down earnings by tier and billing cadence. The platform is also adding membership insights, like member counts that show free trials and members in payment retry, plus filters to break down memberships by trial, gift, active, and retrying status.

Membership InsightsImage Credits:Patreon

A revamped version of the Payouts tab will also show creators a complete record of the earnings moving in and out of their account.

Soon, Patreon will also add creator milestones, or key growth moments, to celebrate special moments in terms of the growth of their community.

As part of its longer-term roadmap, Patreon plans to develop security features like anti-AI scraping tools, real-time spam detection, expanded auto-moderation, additional verification measures, and more.

The full list of improvements includes thirty new or revamped features, some of which are still in early testing. Over the next few months, creators should expect to see many more changes arrive, Patreon said.

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