The 1X Neo robot has very fast fingers

Courtesy of 1X

Courtesy of 1X

“We love the idea that a robot can have a safe, fun and secure presence in life,” says Dar Sleeper, vice president of product and design at 1X. “Something that feels good to be around, something that’s soft from the inside out. If you want something that fits into your life, it can’t feel like it’s from a completely different world.”

Judgment Day

1X says the goal is to fully automate Neo, but for now, that’s only partially achieved for the robot It was operated remotelyas the Wall Street Journal video I noticed last year. This means human operators can control Neo remotely and even look through the camera to see the space around it. This is actually a feature called Expert modeaims to handle more complex routines 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 is starting to get weird because, if the ad for Neo is anything to go by, 1X seems pretty sure you’ll also want to have sex with their robot. The marketing for the new Neo fingers is very sensual. Soft jazz music plays in the background of a soft, warmly lit video. The robot figures wrap themselves around the wine glass, turn off the light, unzip the jacket, and gently caress some grapes. In previous ads, humans would stand close to Neo and look at him flirtatiously.

I don’t mean to be shy if you’re interested, but this is a very strange strategy for selling a robot that can also become a gateway for random human operators to look at and interact with everything in your home. 1X says that human “experts” can only enter your home when you specifically request it. You can also monitor the video they take via the mobile app. The ring light around Neo’s ear turns blue to indicate that the person is online, and you can fire the expert at any time. 1X did not immediately answer questions about how the company plans to prevent bad actors or hackers from taking over the bot.

The other problem with the human element is that it is not yet possible to know how well these motors and hand movements work. When asked whether the videos were produced by the machine’s automation or by someone controlling it remotely, a 1X representative wrote that “some of the videos are automated while some are played to show the upper limit of the devices’ capabilities.” The video of Neo lifting a weight through slow finger curls is the real, fully automated capability of the robot. But the video of Neo performing American Sign Language wasn’t played remotely by a human;

On a Zoom call with WIRED, Terfurth, and Sleeper, a fully automated Neo robot stood behind the two. The sleeper asked him to show how fast he could move his 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 clicked so fast that they blurred together on the screen. He kept going almost too fast to be seen, until Sleeper barked at him to stop. The robot froze. Later, she flashed me a peace sign.