// PC GAMER — GAMING
August was a milestone month if you love watching robots completely eat it
The World Robot Humanoid Games gave us more footage of malfunctioning robots than we know what to do with.
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Here at Clanker Watch we're keeping a vigilant eye on the future as we uneasily enter the Age of Robotics. And there's never been a month like August of 2026 to keep that eye occupied with videos of robots breaking down, messing up, and in a few cases, straight-up catching on fire.
That's due to the World Robot Humanoid Games in Beijing, a yearly event where robots compete in sporting events like running, boxing, jumping, weight-lifting, and even the tug of war. As we've seen in previous months, robots are prone to falling over and freaking out when they're doing stuff like moonwalking or, you know, standing perfectly still.
Getting robots to race at speeds faster than Usain Bolt? There are gonna be some catastrophic fails. Let's look at our favorite robot moments from August.
There's no better place to start than with this highlight reel of fails from the World Robot Humanoid Games compiled by news.com.au. It's four glorious minutes of robots keeling over, smashing into each other, falling to pieces, shuddering, juddering, tripping, malfunctioning, sparking, burning, charging into walls, falling over tables, and being carted away on stretchers. Enjoy.
Funny stuff, but it's also worth noting there were several situations in that compilation where a human being could have been injured. Two running robots abruptly shot sparks from their hips, one actually caught fire, a long-jump robot staggered directly at a bystander who had to leap over a barrier to avoid getting bodied, and a judge at a weight-lifting competition almost had a table knocked over onto her. No need for Skynet—these mini-terminators are already on the brink of wiping us out just by malfunctioning.
Just imagine giving a robot something sharp and sitting there while it swings it around your head. That's the situation with this AI-powered robotic barber:
On the plus side, that looks like maybe the worst haircut I've ever seen, so human hairstylists don't need to worry about being replaced quite yet. And no smock? My guy is just wearing a hoodie that's getting full of his itchy hair clippings while he sits there having his head debased. I'm not seeing evidence of intelligence, artificial or human, anywhere in that clip.
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