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Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that

Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. The frog boils quickly.

phkahler 1y ago
>> Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. Turns out they're either insanely expensive or they just can't actually learn on the fly and do tasks. This is the Nth time I've seen a robot folding a shirt but never in a cluttered room or taken from a pile of laundry. I figured the first AI robots would be pets, but apparently they're aren't even that good yet. Furby level isn't going to cut it.
- cooper_ganglia 1y ago
  >This is the Nth time I've seen a robot folding a shirt This is precisely what I mean. These systems aren't perfect, and won't be widely usable in the home for several more years, but this is the worst they'll ever be! This is the first glimpse of a future without the need of physical human labor, for better or worse. We're watching robots intelligently find a shirt, figure out how to fold it relative to its position, and then parse all that data, tokenizing both vision + text instructions into actionable movements that actually result in the physical world being affected! All this, and people are criticizing it's manufacturing cost or ability to do things it hasn't been explicitly trained to do in 2025. I see these things and don't think about 2025, I'm thinking about 2040 and the inevitable future we're diving into.
paxys 1y ago
> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.
- Symmetry 1y ago
  There are actually thousands of Spots out in the world, mostly doing industrial inspections, now.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- derac 1y ago
  Humanoid robotics has been picking up pace the past couple of years. The hardware and the software has gotten much better very recently. Progress is not linear. You can see this in Atlas itself.
- cooper_ganglia 1y ago
  >Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. Good point, which is why Boston Dynamics didn't really excite me. It was very cool to see the bot balance itself while being pushed with a hockey stick, but LiDAR-based pathfinding on hydraulic actuators has never truly felt like the future. Balancing and doing backflips is different than walking through a home and being able to perform delicate or visually difficult tasks like loading a dishwasher or caring for your baby in it's crib at night (just kidding, lol) I'm sure a lot of BD's initial R&D has made Figure able to ramp so quickly and I don't mean to speak negatively of BD at all, but within 3 years, Figure has made it feel like the future is at our doorstep, meanwhile BD hasn't really done that for me in 3 decades. That's very impressive to me.
  - derac 1y ago
    Building on the shoulders of giants. Not long ago this smaller form factor battery powered electric robot wouldn't have been possible. The necessary tech for the software is only just starting to work. Post-2024 Atlas is also very impressive.
    - buu700 1y ago
      Also worth noting that Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics in 2021, which I would expect to have been motivated by some sort of plan for productization and mass production.
zamadatix 1y ago
You never know how soon or how many iterations until after the goal has been achieved. Sometimes something like the smartphone explodes relatively quickly after the concept starts coming together. Other times you're waiting decades upon decades to turn the corner, like with fusion power. Humanoid robots have fallen into the latter category for too long for most people to jump at each advancement being "the one" anymore. Afterwards, everyone will agree it was obvious ${ADVANCEMENT} was really the one which would do it - but not before.
geraneum 1y ago
> within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. There goes all those plumbing jobs that we, the white collar, were told we should be doing after LLMs take our jobs. edit: typo
- nick49488171 1y ago
  Plumbing is one of the most high-dexterity, non-generalizing jobs I can think of.
- mobiuscog 1y ago
  Do you honestly believe most people would let one of these in to their house ?
deleted 1y ago
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thomassmith65 1y ago
If it's a robot demo, I assume it's partly or even entirely fake. There are exceptions, of course, like Boston Dynamics.
mrcwinn 1y ago
Welcome to HN. :)
deleted 1y ago
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udev4096 1y ago
Crazy how you are falling for this silly hype. It's so clear the videos are cherry picked
lm28469 1y ago
> be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. Nice, we'll be able to work on more day for our overlords! rejoice!
ActionHank 1y ago
I think the point is that we all want a robot to do the laundry and pack the dishwasher, but basically no one wants to be greeted by a robot when they arrive at a hotel. They are selling it the way AI has been sold. This will replace everyone's jobs. Thing is everyone is tired now, so many pointless layoffs, massive bubble, "AI-First"-desperate-ass companies. Who will buy the robots if we are all unemployed?
- letmevoteplease 1y ago
  I'd love to be greeted by a robot when arriving at a hotel. Of course there's the novelty factor, but even without that, self-checkouts show that many people prefer interacting with a machine over a human for service. More importantly, who wants to stand behind a desk 8 hours a day and handle fussy customers? Probably some people, but the main motivation for the average hotel clerk is receiving money. Can we reorganize the economy so robots perform this kind of mundane work, while humans still receive money but can spend their time on more meaningful activities than standing behind a desk? I think a future like that is possible although it remains to be seen whether we will get it.
  - ActionHank 1y ago
    Maybe we live in different worlds, but I don’t know anyone who is especially happy when they get AI support rather than a human. Services roles that are high contact / human interaction should have a human to deal with.
MisterTea 1y ago
> Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. The truth hurts. Humanoid robots are getting better designs and currently do have extraordinary capabilities. Thing is, they're all cherry picked demos from carefully crafted test scenarios. Until these things are thoroughly proven IRL with random tasks thrown at them then we can talk about negative comments. Until then its all marketing BS.

phkahler 1y ago

>> Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. Turns out they're either insanely expensive or they just can't actually learn on the fly and do tasks. This is the Nth time I've seen a robot folding a shirt but never in a cluttered room or taken from a pile of laundry. I figured the first AI robots would be pets, but apparently they're aren't even that good yet. Furby level isn't going to cut it.

cooper_ganglia 1y ago
>This is the Nth time I've seen a robot folding a shirt This is precisely what I mean. These systems aren't perfect, and won't be widely usable in the home for several more years, but this is the worst they'll ever be! This is the first glimpse of a future without the need of physical human labor, for better or worse. We're watching robots intelligently find a shirt, figure out how to fold it relative to its position, and then parse all that data, tokenizing both vision + text instructions into actionable movements that actually result in the physical world being affected! All this, and people are criticizing it's manufacturing cost or ability to do things it hasn't been explicitly trained to do in 2025. I see these things and don't think about 2025, I'm thinking about 2040 and the inevitable future we're diving into.

paxys 1y ago

> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.

Symmetry 1y ago
There are actually thousands of Spots out in the world, mostly doing industrial inspections, now.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
derac 1y ago
Humanoid robotics has been picking up pace the past couple of years. The hardware and the software has gotten much better very recently. Progress is not linear. You can see this in Atlas itself.
cooper_ganglia 1y ago
>Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. Good point, which is why Boston Dynamics didn't really excite me. It was very cool to see the bot balance itself while being pushed with a hockey stick, but LiDAR-based pathfinding on hydraulic actuators has never truly felt like the future. Balancing and doing backflips is different than walking through a home and being able to perform delicate or visually difficult tasks like loading a dishwasher or caring for your baby in it's crib at night (just kidding, lol) I'm sure a lot of BD's initial R&D has made Figure able to ramp so quickly and I don't mean to speak negatively of BD at all, but within 3 years, Figure has made it feel like the future is at our doorstep, meanwhile BD hasn't really done that for me in 3 decades. That's very impressive to me.
- derac 1y ago
  Building on the shoulders of giants. Not long ago this smaller form factor battery powered electric robot wouldn't have been possible. The necessary tech for the software is only just starting to work. Post-2024 Atlas is also very impressive.
  - buu700 1y ago
    Also worth noting that Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics in 2021, which I would expect to have been motivated by some sort of plan for productization and mass production.

zamadatix 1y ago

You never know how soon or how many iterations until after the goal has been achieved. Sometimes something like the smartphone explodes relatively quickly after the concept starts coming together. Other times you're waiting decades upon decades to turn the corner, like with fusion power. Humanoid robots have fallen into the latter category for too long for most people to jump at each advancement being "the one" anymore. Afterwards, everyone will agree it was obvious ${ADVANCEMENT} was really the one which would do it - but not before.

geraneum 1y ago

> within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. There goes all those plumbing jobs that we, the white collar, were told we should be doing after LLMs take our jobs. edit: typo

nick49488171 1y ago
Plumbing is one of the most high-dexterity, non-generalizing jobs I can think of.
mobiuscog 1y ago
Do you honestly believe most people would let one of these in to their house ?

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

thomassmith65 1y ago

If it's a robot demo, I assume it's partly or even entirely fake. There are exceptions, of course, like Boston Dynamics.

mrcwinn 1y ago

Welcome to HN. :)

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

udev4096 1y ago

Crazy how you are falling for this silly hype. It's so clear the videos are cherry picked

lm28469 1y ago

> be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. Nice, we'll be able to work on more day for our overlords! rejoice!

ActionHank 1y ago

I think the point is that we all want a robot to do the laundry and pack the dishwasher, but basically no one wants to be greeted by a robot when they arrive at a hotel. They are selling it the way AI has been sold. This will replace everyone's jobs. Thing is everyone is tired now, so many pointless layoffs, massive bubble, "AI-First"-desperate-ass companies. Who will buy the robots if we are all unemployed?

letmevoteplease 1y ago
I'd love to be greeted by a robot when arriving at a hotel. Of course there's the novelty factor, but even without that, self-checkouts show that many people prefer interacting with a machine over a human for service. More importantly, who wants to stand behind a desk 8 hours a day and handle fussy customers? Probably some people, but the main motivation for the average hotel clerk is receiving money. Can we reorganize the economy so robots perform this kind of mundane work, while humans still receive money but can spend their time on more meaningful activities than standing behind a desk? I think a future like that is possible although it remains to be seen whether we will get it.
- ActionHank 1y ago
  Maybe we live in different worlds, but I don’t know anyone who is especially happy when they get AI support rather than a human. Services roles that are high contact / human interaction should have a human to deal with.

MisterTea 1y ago

> Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. The truth hurts. Humanoid robots are getting better designs and currently do have extraordinary capabilities. Thing is, they're all cherry picked demos from carefully crafted test scenarios. Until these things are thoroughly proven IRL with random tasks thrown at them then we can talk about negative comments. Until then its all marketing BS.