You Are Completely Unprepared for What This Humanoid Servant Robot Looks Like
Norwegian robotics startup 1X has shown off its latest humanoid robot, dubbed Neo Gamma, in a flashy new promotional video claiming to show the bot preparing tea, doing laundry, and vacuuming around the house.
In a bid to separate its bipedal household laborer from the far creepier competition, 1X wrapped Neo Gamma in what it's calling a KnitSuit, an eyebrow-raising onesie that's "soft to the touch and flexible for dynamic movements."
It's a fascinating choice with some eerie results. Despite its full-body sweater, Neo Gamma's face is a more conventional panel of black plastic, dotted with an unsettling pair of set-back eyes. It's as if evil scientists crossed Baymax from Disney's "Big Hero 6" with Jason Voorhees, the hockey mask-donning antagonist from the "Friday The 13th" film series — with maybe a splash of Oogie Boogie from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and the haunted sack guys from "9."
"There is a not-so-distant future where we all have our own robot helper at home, like Rosey the Robot or Baymax," said 1X CEO Bernt Børnich in a statement. "But for humanoid robots to truly integrate into everyday life, they must be developed alongside humans, not in isolation."
But whether any of what 1X showed off in its Apple-like promotional video will ever turn into a reality is awfully hazy. In a press release, the company claims the design is only a "first step" and "opens the door to start internal home testing."
In other words, don't expect Neo Gamma to go on sale any time soon — although, as is typical in the hype-fueled tech sector, the company is simultaneously promising exactly that, even as it manages expectations.
"With NEO Gamma, every engineering and design decision was made with one goal in mind: getting NEO into customers' homes as quickly as possible," Børnich promised. "We're close. We can't wait to share more soon."
1X is far from the first company to show off a flashy humanoid robot designed to help out in the home. Elon Musk's Tesla, for instance, is working on its own bidepal assistant, dubbed Optimus. But despite plenty of fanfare, the EV maker has employed a lot of smoke and mirrors to make up for reality failing to live up to some pretty bold claims so far.
California-based AI robotics company Figure has also shown off an AI-powered humanoid that can talk courtesy of OpenAI's large language models. The company claims on its website that the second generation of its robot, Figure 02, is the "world's first commercially-viable autonomous humanoid robot" — but has yet to announce price or availability.
Interestingly, 1X also received funding from OpenAI last year as part of a $100 million series, in another sign of the hype for humanoid robots that can talk to their masters with the help of generative AI.
But despite the attention and investments being poured into the industry, nobody really knows when — or if — we'll see robots like Neo Gamma being offered to consumers. The engineering challenges are immense, and whether they can prove to be actually useful in a home setting, let alone be affordable to those who aren't hugely wealthy, remains to be seen.
At least we'll give 1X credit for a creative new twist on the otherwise uncanny aesthetics of robotics, filled with creepy facial expressions and twitching extremities.
More on humanoid robots: Tesla's Robots Were Just Remotely Controlled Dummies, Analyst Confirms
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