California-based AI and robotics company 1X is now accepting pre-orders for its humanoid robot NEO, which was designed to automate everyday chores and to offer personalized assistance. Users will be able to control NEO and have it accomplish tasks around the house with the click of a button or a verbal command. It will come with the ability to do basic tasks autonomously when it starts shipping next year, including opening doors, fetching items and turning the lights on or off. However, if early adopters want NEO to be capable of more specific or complex tasks, they’d have to be comfortable with the idea of a human teleoperator controlling the robot remotely and seeing inside their homes.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, 1X CEO Bernt Børnich explained that the AI neural network running the machine still needs to learn from more real-world experiences. Børnich said that anybody who buys NEO for delivery next year will have to agree that a human operator will be seeing inside their houses through the robot’s camera. It’s necessary to be able to teach the machines and gather training data so it can eventually perform tasks autonomously. “If we don’t have your data, we can’t make the product better,” he said.
Børnich admitted that much of the work will be done by teleoperators in the beginning. Owners will have access to an app where they can schedule when the teleoperator can take over NEO and where they can specify the task they want the machine to do. He said 1X is putting control in the hands of the owner to respect people’s privacy as much as possible. The company can blur people so that the remote operator doesn’t see them, and owners can designate no-go zones in their homes that the operator cannot go to. Teleoperators also cannot take control of NEO without the owner’s approval. Of course, there’s always potential security breaches to think of — Børnich at least assured that NEO has several layers of security to prevent it from hurting people.
1X NEO is available in tan, gray and dark brown. It’s now available for pre-order from the company’s website with a deposit of $200. Those who want early access to it can get it for $20,000, but it will also be available as a subscription service of $499 a month.