MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.
Jan Liphardt teaches bioengineering at Stanford, but to many strangers in Los Altos, California, he is a peculiar man they see walking a four-legged robotic dog down the street.
Liphardt has been experimenting with building and modifying robots for years, and when he brings his “dog” out in public, he generally gets one of three reactions. Young children want to have one, their parents are creeped out, and baby boomers try to ignore it. “They’ll quickly walk by,” he says, “like, ‘What kind of dumb new stuff is going on here?’”
In the many conversations I’ve had about robots, I’ve also found that most people tend to fall into these three camps, though I don’t see such a neat age division. Some are upbeat and vocally hopeful that a future is just around the corner in which machines can expertly handle much of what is currently done by humans, from cooking to surgery. Others are scared: of job losses, injuries, and whatever problems may come up as we try to live side by side.
The final camp, which I think is the largest, is just unimpressed. We’ve been sold lots of promises that robots will transform society ever since the first robotic arm was installed on an assembly line at a General Motors plant in New Jersey in 1961. Few of those promises have panned out so far.
But this year, there’s reason to think that even those staunchly in the “bored” camp will be intrigued by what’s happening in the robot races. Here’s a glimpse at what to keep an eye on.
Humanoids are put to the test
The race to build humanoid robots is motivated by the idea that the world is set up for the human form, and that automating that form could mean a seismic shift for robotics. It is led by some particularly outspoken and optimistic entrepreneurs, including Brett Adcock, the founder of Figure AI, a company making such robots that’s valued at more than $2.6 billion (it’s begun testing its robots with BMW). Adcock recently told Time, “Eventually, physical labor will be optional.” Elon Musk, whose company Tesla is building a version called Optimus, has said humanoid robots will create “a future where there is no poverty.” A robotics company called Eliza Wakes Up is taking preorders for a $420,000 humanoid called, yes, Eliza.
In June 2024, Agility Robotics sent a fleet of its Digit humanoid robots to GXO Logistics, which moves products for companies ranging from Nike to Nestlé. The humanoids can handle most tasks that involve picking things up and moving them somewhere else, like unloading pallets or putting boxes on a conveyor.
There have been hiccups: Highly polished concrete floors can cause robots to slip at first, and buildings need good Wi-Fi co
