Courtesy of 1X
Courtesy of 1X
“We love this idea that a robot can be this peaceful and fun and goofy safe presence in a life,” says Dar Sleeper, 1X’s vice president of product and design. “Something that feels comfortable to be around, something that’s soft from the inside to the outside. If you want something to fit into your life, it can’t feel like it’s from a whole different universe.”
Judgment Day
1X says the goal is full automation for Neo, but for now, the robot is partly teleoperated, as a Wall Street Journal video noted last year. That means human operators can take control of Neo remotely and even look through a camera to view the space around it. This is actually a feature called Expert Mode, meant to handle more complicated chores by bringing a human into the loop. It also means that if you have one in your home, it can see everything around it.
This starts to get weird because, if the company’s advertising for the Neo is anything to go by, the robot can be in some very intimate situations. The marketing for Neo’s new fingers feels very sensual. Smooth jazz plays in the background of a soft, warmly lit video. The robo digits curl around a wine glass, turn off a light, unzip a jacket, and gently fondle some grapes. In previous ads, the humans stand just very close to Neo and look at it flirtatiously. (After this story was published, a 1X representative clarified that the company does not view Neo or any of this marketing material as flirtatious.)
Not to kink shame, but this is a strange strategy for selling a robot that can also become a portal for human operators to peer into and interact with the things in your home. 1X says that human “experts” can only ever enter your home when you’ve specifically requested it, robot movements can be restricted, and faces and other sensitive information can be blurred. You can also monitor the video they are capturing via a mobile app. A ring light around Neo’s ear turns blue to indicate that a person is connected, and you can kick the expert out at any time. 1X did not immediately answer questions about how the company plans to prevent bad actors or hackers from taking over the robot.
The other problem with the human element is that it is not yet possible to tell exactly how well these actuators and hand movements work. When asked if the videos were made by the machine automations or by someone controlling them remotely, a 1X representative wrote that “some of the videos are machine-articulated while some are operated to show the upper limit of the hardware capabilities.”
On a Zoom call with WIRED, Terfurth, and Sleeper, a fully automated Neo robot stood behind the two. Sleeper asked it to show off how fast it could move its fingers. Neo raised and then lowered one finger at a time, slowly at first. Then it started to speed up—faster and faster until the fingers drummed so fast they blurred together on the screen. It carried on, almost too fast to see, until Sleeper barked at it to stop. The robot froze. Later, it flashed me a peace sign.
