During one of my healthy and productive doom-scrolling sessions on Instagram reels, I came across a video announcing the release of the world’s first “humanoid for the home”. The thumbnail featured a ghostly pale Scandinavian-sounding CEO, sporting a sterile plain white-tee and white hat, giving a warm glance to the robot beside him. As is the norm for Instagram reels, the comment section did not disappoint. With brutally honest remarks ranging from “I would be absolutely terrified that thing would kill me in my sleep” to a more ominous “I think I’ve seen this movie”—an allusion to Will Smith’s dystopian film I, Robot—the consensus was that this innovation was anything but good news.
The video was accompanied by the classy tune of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine , showing a montage of the robot helping around a stunning home. All together, the ad did a wonderful job at evoking opulence and sophistication, a serene arrangement of how comfortable your life would be with this robot servant to load your dishwasher.
However, upon hearing the details of this robot—pricing, features, purpose of production, I couldn’t help but find several flaws in their selling points. Here are the top three issues with NEO—the humble housekeeper:
1) SOMEBODY’S WATCHING
In order for the robot to learn the daily ins and outs of upkeep and cleaning, there is a 1x employee wearing a VR set, who initially sees out of the robot’s eyes—looking around your home, gathering information, hearing conversations, staring right at you and teaching Neo how to load the dishwasher. This is because Neo is “still in the early stages” and not fully autonomous enough to come fully ready to tackle the daily habits of your home.
2) I’ve been fooled!
Aside from the 1x employee seeing out of Neo, which amplifies the creepiness of the robot, coupled with critics smelling a data breach lawsuit from a million miles away; there is a matter of utter impracticality.
After purchasing Neo for the hefty price of $20,000, one would expect this innovation would come pre-programmed with everything needed in order to tend to its duties. If this were the case, it would be a distinguishable trait from hiring a human being who initially needs to be briefed on the house details. Don’t fall victim to false advertising. Paying for a real human to clean your home will not only be way more affordable, but way worth your money.
3) TED TALK IS CHEAP
1x’s Instagram account also posted a Ted Talk clip where the ghostly pale CEO Bernt Børnich was demonstrating the robot’s features. At one point during the talk, he made the incongruous claim that “there is a large labor shortage across most of the global economy”. This is quite an ironic thing to say in a Ted Talk promoting an unnecessary device—the very device that is reducing the need for hospitality workers that are employed to perform the precise labor that Neo was designed to do. It seems as if he was telling on himself.
So yes—NEO can load your dishwasher, play house with your espresso cups, and silently judge your pile of unfolded laundry. But between the $20,000 price tag, the VR guy peeking through its eyes, and a CEO who accidentally admitted he’s replacing jobs no one asked him to, maybe we don’t need a humanoid roommate just yet. Until Neo can pay rent and do taxes, I’ll stick to my mop. And my privacy.