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Unreal: Robot Servants in the Home Are Closer Than We Thought

AP Photo/Luca Bruno

I was wrong. 

When I talked about the future of tech and what's coming up, I put robot servants somewhere in the back of the timeline. My focus was primarily on the development of artificial intelligence and augmented/virtual reality technology. While I still think that stuff is far closer to being a far more pervasive part of everyday life, I didn't see the robots in the home thing happening for at least another 15 to 20 years. 

(READ: My Weird Thoughts on How Humanity and Technology Will Grow Together)

Now, I'm not so sure. I'm going to now put robot helpers in the home happening at about a decade. 

I'm not sure if you've seen the news, but a company developing robots called "Figure AI" is doing some worthwhile with robots that are pretty mindblowing. For a while, I thought Tesla was the leader, and after watching Figure AI's display of its own robot technology, Tesla's "Optimus" looks like it's crawling while Figure AI's "Figure 01" is jogging. 

Figure 01 isn't just in development, it's developed. It's ready for deployment in the real world, and the car manufacturer BMW is already taking advantage of it by putting it in a car manufacturing facility in South Carolina according to The Robot Report

The interest in humanoid robots continues to gain steam. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Figure AI signed an agreement with BMW Manufacturing to test its 01 humanoid at the car maker’s plant in Spartanburg, S.C. This is an impressive milestone for Figure, which was founded in 2022 and exited stealth in early 2023.

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Figure called this a “milestone-based” deal. In the first phase, the company has been identifying the initial tasks its robot could perform. Brett Adcock, Figure’s founder and CEO, said the initial tasks include moving bins and boxes and other “various logistics things” inside the BMW body shop.

While Adcock wouldn’t reveal the number of humanoids being used, a BMW spokesperson told The Robot Report that in these first stages it “will have one robot for technical evaluation.” If all goes well, the tasks and number of humanoids at the BMW plant would likely increase.

Figure AI said it will be ready to carry out commercial distribution of its robots to a greater capacity by the end of 2024.

BMW reports that the robots they currently use aren't as ambidextrous as the Figure 01 bots and look forward to the capabilities a humanoid bot may offer. 

If alarms are already being set off in your head about how this could be disastrous for blue-collar workers, you can't be blamed. While for now, this is just a robot replacing a robot, if Figure 01 ends up being far more useful in many other capacities, you can bet that it'll start replacing humans in various other positions as well.

But it goes deeper than that. While Figure 01 may prove to be incredibly talented in the workplace, Figure AI has geared its humanoid bot to work well in the home too. 

Two days ago, Figure AI dropped this video on YouTube displaying its capabilities in the kitchen. The video is two and a half minutes long but displays an incredible amount of advancement on the robot front. 

I want to break down this video bit by bit, because what happened is pretty incredible. 

Firstly, the bot was able to see the scene in front of it and deduce where it was, the kitchen, and the context attached to it. Upon being asked to give the human something to eat, it identified that the only edible thing nearby was the apple, and handed it to the human. It also identified what was trash and sorted dishware where it should go. 

As an added touch, the way it spoke to the human was very human-like, even adding "uhs" into the mix to make it seem more natural. It's not a touch that you would need on a factory floor, but one that would make a person feel like it's okay for something like this to be in the home. 

In another video, it shows Figure 01 making coffee in a Keurig which requires a certain level of accuracy, but at the end of the video it shows you something more interesting; the fact that it can actually correct its own mistakes. 

As I said, some of its movements may be good enough for various tasks on the factory floor now, but I still see this as a little ways off from being super useful in the home. 

But not for long. 

Earlier in the article I gave it about 10 years before we would start seeing these robots available for home use. That's my conservative estimate. Given the speed at which robots are being developed and the pace at which AI is developing, I'm not entirely sure saying these bots would be ready for home distribution in seven to eight years is totally off the mark. 

By that time we may see vast improvement in spatial accuracy, speed, and the ability to accomplish more tasks than it can now. This may also include integration with household electronics that the bot can interface with over WiFi, and maybe even your car. 

Of course, this will initially only be available to the rich as they'll be the only people who can afford it, but don't think these bots are being designed for just the rich. The goal is general ownership. They may cost something akin to that of a car, but a household robot might become more desirable than a car as VR tech is developed further and cars become more and more unnecessary, especially for people who live in cities.

(READ: Apple's 'Vision Pro' Is the Infancy of Technology That Society Will Soon Revolve Around)

I truly believe that, technologically speaking, we're about to turn a number of corners that will change society and humanity forever. Things that we only saw in sci-fi movies are now very close to becoming a normal reality. It's my belief that Generation Alpha will grow up in a world that looks very different from ours with all the technological integration and advancement. 

The question is, are we developing this technology so quickly that the consequences of it will hit us just as fast? 

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