By: Camilo Moncada Díaz
1X Technologies showed off NEO, its first humanoid home robot, and made a bold statement about bringing science fiction closer to the living room. NEO is designed to help with chores, keep track of schedules, and potentially provide companionship one day. It’s sleek, it’s smart, and it’s a little creepy.
But the release of NEO makes me think about something deeper than just the movie news: are we really ready for robots that look, move, and think like us? To learn more, we talked to experts in AI, robotics, and home innovation who explained how hard it is to use AI in everyday life, which is so personal and unpredictable.
It sounds appealing to have a humanoid robot do your laundry or make your morning coffee, especially if you have a lot going on at work, with kids, or just feel tired of life in general. But experts say that the path from demo to daily use is full of complexities.
“It’s not just about teaching humanoid robots how to move. It’s about knowing the situation, what an object means, how people act, and what feelings make people do things. A robot can follow orders, but it will never really get the world around it without that semantic understanding,” Qixuan Zhang, CTO of Deemos, says.
Zhang, who is responsible for research in generative and visual AI, says that the current problems are all about subtlety. AI systems still have trouble figuring out how unpredictable human spaces can be, like when a pet runs across the floor, a child leaves toys all over the place, or a person suddenly changes their tone or intention.
“A robot might be able to tell what a glass is, but knowing when and how to give it to someone safely requires a deeper level of perception, something we’re just starting to approach,” the expert added.
Jun Zhu, Bosch AI Professor at Tsinghua University and CEO of Vidu AI, says, “We’re probably five to ten years away from a truly autonomous home robot that combines AI, mechanical dexterity, and human-like decision-making. Even then, trust and safety will be the last things to go. You can’t just put AI in homes without making it understandable, predictable, and in line with human values.”
Zhu’s team at Vidu AI has been making progress in semantic understanding and multi-subject consistency. These are big steps forward that could help robots understand what’s going on in changing situations. He points out that the same intelligence that makes AI-generated videos creative must also come with responsibility when it is put into machines that move and act in the real world.
“A home robot isn’t just software. It’s a guest in your most private space. That makes everything different,” Zhu emphasized.
Jason Gebert, who runs Advanced Clean Air, thinks the idea of a robot keeping people comfortable indoors is interesting, but not yet ready for the market.
“Homes are unpredictable places. Every system is different, and people’s schedules change every day. For these robots to become popular, they need to be safe, affordable, and able to adapt.”
The executive notes that requiring constant human supervision for maintenance or updates would undermine the purpose. In addition, Gebert doesn’t think the company will be able to make money soon.
“Right now, the economics don’t add up for most households. The cost of making, keeping up with, and being responsible for is much higher than the value of convenience. Until that changes, humanoid robots will still be more of an intriguing experiment than something you need in your home.”
And that’s where the paradox lies. NEO isn’t just a great piece of technology; it’s also a mirror that shows us our own hopes, fears, and maybe even insecurities about automation. We need help, but we also want to be in charge. We want things to be efficient, but we don’t want our machines to be too smart.
For now, 1X’s NEO is still a fascinating experiment. It’s a bold first step toward a world where robots might clean up after us, both literally and figuratively. It may not be the housekeeper of the future, but it is definitely the thought-provoking conversation starter of the present.
If a humanoid robot can learn to find its way around our kitchens, fold our laundry, and maybe even survive a toddler’s tantrum, what’s next?
Technology is getting smarter, but we can only hope it also learns to laugh. If robots are going to live with us, they need to be able to laugh at how silly it all is. A robot that takes itself too seriously is the last thing we need.
