Humans Are Peering Through the Eyes of Robots

“We shall describe devices which appear to move of their own accord.”

​- Hero of Alexandria, Pneumatica

Image courtesy of 1X.

​Those of a certain age might remember the Domesticon, a line of 22nd century robotic butlers from the movie Sleeper. To avoid being caught by the authoritarian state, Woody Allen’s character Miles Monroe pretends to be a Domesticon during a dinner party. The scene is equal parts slapstick and satire. Miles’ cover is blown when he tries to help the host but acts too human in the process.

The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern recently found that one actual prototype of the Domesticon is not entirely dissimilar to the fictional version. 1X Technologies is beta testing NEO, the $20,000 “home humanoid” it hopes to bring to market in 2026. Recently, Stern got to see it in action for the second time and discovered a decidedly Sleeper-like connection: NEO is part human.

Not organically, like a cyborg – so far the full integration of creature and computer is limited to cockroaches. No, NEO is remotely human, as in there’s a remote human operator back at company HQ, “potentially peering through the robot’s camera eyes to get chores done.”

Now, how’d you like to have that job? But as 1X CEO Bernt Børnich told Stern: “If you buy this product, it is because you’re okay with that social contract. If we don’t have your data, we can’t make the product better.”

Such transparency is refreshing. It is also a reminder of the Faustian bargain we must strike in order to make artificial intelligence work at the expense of our personal privacy. AI is unlike any software that came before in that it requires gargantuan amounts of data in order to learn its jobs. As Stern notes, “It needs data from us – and from our homes.” A world model, in other words, centered around us and private things we do at home. 

We expect these machines to be capable of fully human, fully competent, fully safe behaviors – all while being fully autonomous. None of that will happen without the ability to collect and learn from the data of day-to-day human lives. There are no shortcuts, either. When 1X let Stern drive NEO using one of the company’s VR headsets its human operators wear, she nearly dislocated its arm. The robot left for the shop in a wheelchair. The robot, a cross between “a fencing instructor and a Lululemon mannequin,” as she describes it, had neither’s dexterity nor style.

And during the first meeting the reporter had with NEO earlier in the year, the robot managed to faceplant.

“No way that thing is coming near my kids or dog,” she remembers thinking. Domestic robotics remains in its infancy – literally in Stern’s view. “The next few years won’t be about owning a capable robot; they’ll be about raising one.” Like a toddler, humanoid AI can’t learn without doing, watching, and remembering.

1X says users will be able to set “no-go” zones, blur faces in the video feed, and that human operators back at HQ will not connect unless invited to do so. CEO Børnich told Stern that such “teleoperation” was a lot like having a house cleaner. “Last I checked,” Stern responded wryly, “my house cleaner doesn’t wear a camera or beam my data back to a corporation.”

A punchline of sorts seems appropriate here: We’re big fans of the ethical AI principle that says always have a human in the loop – “but this is ridiculous!” 

Stern’s forthcoming book, I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything and Replace (Almost) Everyone, is now available for pre-order. Readers can expect more dirt on NEO.
​
Unless he learns to vacuum first.

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