Dreaming of a Truly Helpful Home Humanoid Robot? CES Will Bring Us All a Reality Check

Just a week after the study was published, startup Figure AI was sued by a whistleblower, who warned that the company's humanoid robots could "fracture a human skull."

As compelling as they are to observe, robots such as Elon Musk's Tesla Optimus and Boston Dynamics' stable of bots can be a little unnerving. But if those sorts of robots are on display at CES this week, the focus will likely be on the skills they can bring to industrial settings rather than to the home. Still, some are trying. The team at Sunday Robotics, based in California, is training its humanoid robot, Memo, with data provided by families across the US that use high-tech gloves to capture the intricate movement of their hands as they carry out household tasks. It's an ambitious approach to preparing robots for family life, and if Sunday Robotics can stick to its desired timeline, it could well be one of the first companies to deploy non-teleoperated humanoids in people's homes. It's possible that this year at CES, we could see a company integrate more advanced AI into a robot concept it has already showcased, said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. He suggested Samsung could build on its rolling projector robot, Ballie, by working closely with Google -- as it already does on phones -- to create a next-generation version equipped with Gemini, for example.