Humanoid Robots Are Coming, As Soon As They Learn to Fold Clothes
At a Silicon Valley summit, small robots roamed and poured lattes, while evangelists hailed new AI techniques as transformative. But full-size prototypes were scarce.
Illustration: Firpal for Bloomberg
The packed crowd at Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum was buzzing with anticipation: Has the moment arrived when robotics breaks out of the factory and into our daily lives, creating a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars?
Almost 100 years after the Maschinenmensch appeared in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, robots are still mostly toys or tools built to perform repetitive tasks on manufacturing lines or in distribution centers. The concept of human-style robots in our homes and offices remains primarily the preserve of science fiction. But as large language models like ChatGPT promise a kind of general computer interface — it can code! It can write songs! It can make movies! — the hot idea in robotics is using those same tools to build a robot that can take on any task.