- Title: Meet the AI humanoid robot built to help you around the house
- Date: 3rd December 2024
- Summary: MOSS, NORWAY (OCTOBER 30, 2024)(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF THREE NEO UNITS PRODUCED BY THE COMPANY 1X WALKING FORWARDS FEET OF A NEO WALKING HEAD OF A NEO AS IT TURNS VARIOUS OF NEO UNITS WALKING AWAY HEAD OF A NEO (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO AND FOUNDER OF 1X, BERNT BORNICH, SAYING: “This is the newest version of our humanoid Neo, who is going to be piloted in homes, we're starting to roll that out now. And this is going to be, in the long term this will be doing your laundry, cleaning your house, tidying, and generally giving you back a lot of time in life.” VARIOUS OF NEO UNITS WALKING INSIDE 1X’S OFFICES IN MOSS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO AND FOUNDER OF 1X, BERNT BORNICH, SAYING : “We're starting with the simple things. Now, nothing is simple in robotics, but the laundry, tidying, general cleaning, and everyday kind of household tasks, right? And in addition, it's going to be a great companion, you can talk to it, have good conversations, it can teach you things, it can be entertainment." VARIOUS OF NEO UNITS WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO AND FOUNDER OF 1X, BERNT BORNICH, SAYING : “And also, we're really excited about the ability to teleoperate the robot yourself. So if you're somewhere else, you can actually teleport into your robot and do small things in your house that maybe you forgot to do, right? Feed the cat or close the window, check that everything's okay, and also be able to have your friends visit in a different embodied version of remote presence, which I think is going to be really exciting to explore in the coming years.” VARIOUS OF A NEO USING A COFFEE MACHINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO AND FOUNDER OF 1X, BERNT BORNICH, SAYING : “Everything you see in NEO to some point is AI, right? From how it knows how to control its own body, from how it knows how to walk in a robust manner, to how to operate objects, how to do tasks, how to handle interacting with people, body language, language itself while speaking and audio. All of this is modern AI applied to robotics. And what really is exciting about NEO and the pilots that we're starting to roll out now is to have these systems learn among people." NEO MAKING COFFEE AS ANOTHER NEO WALKS IN THE BACKGROUND ROBOT’S HAND PRESSING BUTTONS NEO WALKING AS ANOTHER MAKES COFFEE VARIOUS OF NEO MAKING COFFEE FEET OF A NEO WALKING IN THE OFFICES OF 1X VARIOUS OF A NEO WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO AND FOUNDER OF 1X, BERNT BORNICH, SAYING : “I actually had one of the previous version humanoids that we make, the Eve robot, at home for quite a while. To test out how it is to live with a robot as part of the family. And to help doing all these daily chores around the house. And everything from conversations to actual laundry and tidying and everything in between. And at that point I would have said: this is really useful, I don't want to give it back, but I wouldn't pay for it yet. This is a while ago. So there's still some way to go. And we learned an enormous amount from this. And all of these lessons learned went into designing NEO. Both the hardware and the AI stack. And we're about to try this again now. And I'm super excited to see the results.”
- Embargoed: 17th December 2024 20:04
- Keywords: 1X AI NEO 1X robot NEO robot Tesla Tesla Bot artificial intelligence humanoid robot
- Location: Moss, Norway / Nancy, France / Shanghai & Gobi Desert, China / Unidentified Locations
- City: Moss, Norway / Nancy, France / Shanghai & Gobi Desert, China / Unidentified Locations
- Country: Norway
- Topics: Europe,Information Technologies / Computer Sciences,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA001403002122024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The race is on to be the first humanoid robot that we will welcome into our homes, with companies including Tesla vying to be the first to get a viable android into our daily lives.
One of those hoping to win that race is 1X, a company based in Norway and Silicon Valley, with their humanoid robot, NEO. Dressed in a kitschy futuristic jumpsuit, NEO was recently demonstrated for Reuters at the firm's headquarters in Moss, south of the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Bernt Bornich, CEO and founder of 1X, said: "In the long term this will be doing your laundry, cleaning your house, tidying, and generally giving you back a lot of time in life.”
He added: "In addition, it's going to be a great companion, you can talk to it, have good conversations, it can teach you things, it can be entertainment."
Bornich further explained how artificial intelligence (AI) is integral to NEO.
“Everything you see in Neo to some point is AI," he said, adding, "From how it knows how to control its own body, from how it knows how to walk in a robust manner, to how to operate objects, how to do tasks, how to handle interacting with people, body language, language itself while speaking and audio. All of this is modern AI applied to robotics."
NEO has also been designed to be 'piloted' - teleoperated by a human from a different location. Bornich said this will allow users to log into their robot avatar no matter where in the world they are. This could also enable new kinds of human-robot interaction, he said.
"(To) be able to have your friends visit in a different embodied version of remote presence, which I think is going to be really exciting to explore in the coming years,” Bornich added.
The merging of AI and engineering is significantly advancing the field of humanoid robotics. Engineers design robots to mimic human form and movement, while AI provides the 'brainpower', enabling these machines to learn from their environment, make decisions, and perform complex tasks.
The prototype version of NEO demonstrated for Reuters was piloted by humans remotely; the company said this is how 1X trains their AI models, learning from the robots working in real-world environments.
The market-ready version will use AI and remote control and will be unveiled in 2025. 1X says they can't reveal pricing details yet, but expect it to be in line with a mid-priced new car.
However, NEO will likely have a lot of competition.
Elon Musk said in October 2024 that there will be at least 10 billion humanoid robots priced between $20,000 and $25,000 by 2040. And speaking at the launch of the Tesla Robotaxi, Musk said that he believes his 'Optimus', or 'Tesla Bot', humanoid robot will be "the biggest product ever, of any kind"
Multiple startups are foraying into the robotic AI space, including Vicarious, which was acquired by Alphabet-owned Intrinsic in 2022, Universal Robots, Seegrid, and Covariant.
Beijing-based start-up Robotic Era recently released video of its STAR 1 humanoid robot demonstrating its maneuverability by traversing the challenging terrain of China's northwestern Gobi Desert.
And at the recent International Conference on Humanoid Robotics in Nancy, France, over 30 companies as well as research institutions showcased their latest robots.
(Production: Matt Stock/Tom Little) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None