Well, it’s happening. This week California-based 1X Technologies started taking orders for their NEO, a humanoid robot that acts as a household servant.
The 5’6 ‘bot can do laundry, tidy up the house, fetch objects, carry groceries, water plants, open doors for guests and more.
The robot is fully autonomous. For any task it doesn’t already know how to do, buyers can have a 1X employee remotely control the thing–it’s got cameras for eyes–and “teach” NEO to perform the task. (Of course, that also means you’ve got a stranger eyeballing your space.)
It also listens and talks, so you essentially have a walking ChatGPT. You can ask it to identify things (reading a label on a bottle that you can’t make out, for instance) or have it teach you a foreign language. And if you’re out and about, you can use your phone to remotely see what the robot is doing, through its own eyes. (I can only imagine how the horror film genre will use this convention.)
It can even charge itself.
I find all of this deeply unsettling.
The company says the ‘bot is safe, as its components are wrapped in a “deformable 3D lattice;” I assume that means you’re protected from accidental bumps. Its lifting capacity is 154 pounds but it can only carry 55 pounds, so while it could conceivably body slam some adults, it can’t carry them off.
You can either buy the ‘bot outright for $20,000, or “subscribe” to it for $500 a month. Deliveries start next year.
If you purchase it outright, it comes with a three-year warranty. Which makes me wonder: What do you do with this thing in three years, when more capable, cheaper models will surely be on the market? The ‘bot seems a bit more difficult to recycle than a smartphone. Perhaps in the future we’ll be trading these robots in or leasing them like cars.