After AI, domestic robots are coming to your home

• 1X, a Norwegian OpenAI-funded company, has unveiled EVE, a highly advanced humanoid robot it wants to serve the elderly
• The latter is already used for guarding missions in warehouses
• The prospects for these machines are immense as they learn new moves and skills on a daily basis.

The presentation went relatively unnoticed last April, but 1X, an OpenAI-funded startup, has just taken a giant leap forward with its humanoid robot EVE. Among the plans of this company: to deploy its machine in senior residences within five to ten years, where it will be put at the service of the inhabitants to help them in their daily lives.

For now, EVE still needs to be supervised by humans, but it has impressive abilities. Thus, its light-emitting diode face can display reactions. An essential attribute to interact with us. Its movable arms are able to open doors, windows, and manipulate certain objects. Finally, operators can directly communicate with those around them through the robot.

Will we soon be freed from domestic chores?

But what is even more remarkable with EVE is that it has a very sophisticated language model (a bit like ChatGPT). Clearly, the robot “learns” as it makes mistakes and succeeds. He improves over time and understands and executes new commands. A bit like for AI, the prospects are therefore immense in a few years, even if close human supervision is still required.

The market for humanoid robots is also attracting covetousness. In addition to 1X funded to the tune of $23.5 million by OpenAI, we find Tesla which recently unveiled Optimus. Elon Musk strongly believes in this market and in a world where we could have two robots for every human on the planet. He added during a recent conference presenting the results to shareholders: “Optimus is a hugely underrated product”.

If there are already domestic robots used for cleaning, cooking, or other small essential daily acts, we therefore begin to dream of a sufficiently advanced humanoid robot that is able to free us from household chores. An idea that is perhaps not so fanciful with regard to the latest technological developments observed.

However, and as for AI, these developments in the field of robotics are not necessarily encouraging, and in particular for the workers who could be replaced by these robots, as these specialized companies already openly anticipate.