Humanoid Robots Are Getting Even Creepier (This One Can Cry On Command)

Other robots over the past year have achieved impressive feats. At Beijing's second annual World Humanoid Robot Games, the Tiangong Ultra robot ran the 100-meter dash in 9.39 seconds, which beats Usain Bolt's 9.58-second human record. Japan Airlines began testing an android baggage handler at Haneda Airport in May, seeking to offset the country's shrinking workforce. 1X's $20,000 NEO home robot promises to learn household chores, although it still needs human teleoperators watching through its cameras in the beginning. # Humanoid robots are getting even creepier (this one can cry on command)

As robots learn to fake feelings, the line between comfort and creepy keeps shrinking.

Humanoid robots have come a long way from clunky and monotone machines. Today's models can hold conversations, dance (well, sort-of) and even mimic human facial expressions with unsettling accuracy. The latest addition to this continuously growing list is the Yansyn-X2, a robot that made headlines for something no consumer device has done before: crying on command. ## The fast-growing robotics landscape

Yansyn-X2 isn't a one-off robot that's making our skin crawl. It's part of a broader wave of humanoid development happening across several fronts. At CES 2026, robotics companies showed off a ton of machines aimed at different goals. LG's CLOiD (slowly) folds and sorts your laundry. WIRobotics' Allex is handy for holding objects of up to 6.6 lbs while also creating recognizable hand gestures. SwitchBot's Onero H1 won our best robot in show award because it did what we really want robots to do — loaded the washing machine — because that's what we really want AI and robots to do instead of writing and painting in our place.