Source Details

{
    "source_type": "extension",
    "content_hash": "33e4a7915275d7870c25cc8727c237074940fa04a81d1410fa03de4408901d88",
    "submitted_via": "chrome_extension",
    "extension_version": "1.0.18",
    "original_url": "https:\/\/reason.com\/2026\/09\/20\/robot-hands-need-robot-eyes\/?mc_eid=d824ab4cc6&utm_source=Reason%2BMagazine&utm_campaign=f53ba658bb-reason_brand%7Cnew_at_reason%7C2026_09_21b&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_31d7ef7f57-f53ba658bb-589886052",
    "parsed_content": "Technology\nAI Companies Promise Humanoid Assistants. How Will the Robots Know What To Do?\nDevelopers are using videos of real-life work to train the new generation of robots.\nMeagan O'Rourke\n|\nFrom the October 2026 issue\nShare on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL\n Add Reason to Google\nMedia Contact & Reprint Requests\n (X1)\n Listen to this article 6 min The newest home robots look less like a Roomba and more like C-3PO.\nLast year, a demo\u00a0of 1X Technologies' home robot, NEO, went viral. In a video produced by\u00a0The Wall Street Journal, the mouthless bot\u00a0attempted\u00a0to load a dishwasher. NEO moved clumsily but completed the task\u2014with the help of a human teleoperator. In July, 1X\u00a0unveiled\u00a0NEO's new dexterous, tendon-driven hands. According to 1X, the hands \"remove the hardware ceiling on what humanoid robots can actually do\" and \"make data the only barrier to capabilities.\"\n1X is one of several companies creating humanoid robots using physical AI\u2014artificial intelligence that allows robots to operate autonomously in the real world. Companies such as Figure,\u00a0Tesla,\u00a0Agility, and\u00a0Boston Dynamics\u00a0are competing to produce and deploy bots that can perform human work. As in the broader AI race, China is a formidable player.\nIn a May post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman\u00a0mused that \"in the long term, we imagine everyone having a personal robot doing anything they need.\" Humanoid robots have not yet achieved the autonomy and dexterity of the Ex Machina robowomen. Getting them to that level of proficiency will require humans to provide some help\u2014and lots of data.\nPowered By00:00\/08:1210 SecGender Equality to Take 120 Years Even as Gap Narrows, WEF Says NextStayJust as large language models such as ChatGPT rely on text, robots need massive amounts of data to operate autonomously, as the\u00a0Los Angeles Times\u00a0pointed out\u00a0last year. For some robotics companies, this means collecting a large number of videos\u2014sometimes public, sometimes licensed\u2014of people doing everyday tasks.\nData harvesting to train humanoid robots has become its own industry. The company Shift, for example, pays participants to record themselves doing chores or physical labor. The end goal of providing training data to robotics companies is to create a \"world of abundance\" in which there is no labor shortage, says Shift co-founder Anton Poletaev. In\u00a0May, to entice people to provide training data from their apartments, the company offered New Yorkers free cleanings performed by employees wearing cameras strapped to their heads.\nShift's privacy policy prohibits contributors from recording videos of children, intimate situations, or passwords. Poletaev says Shift's algorithms anonymize personal information from session recordings, including faces and identifying materials.\nShift users elect to act as a set of eyes for robotics companies in exchange for cash. Buyers of humanoid robots must consider a different tradeoff.\nIn the 2025 demo of NEO, a human engineer\u00a0teleoperated\u00a0the bot the\u00a0whole time. But 1X\u00a0says\u00a0the latest version of NEO, which is expected to\u00a0ship to consumers\u00a0by the end of 2026, will operate autonomously\u00a0by default. If it encounters an unfamiliar task, owners can\u00a0ask\u00a0for an expert teleoperator to take over and remotely maneuver the bot.\n\"In 2026, if you buy this product, it is because you are OK with that social contract,\" 1X founder and CEO Bernt B\u00f8rnich told\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0technology journalist Joanna Stern last fall. \"If we don't have your data, we can't make the product better.\"\nThe company says it has privacy safeguards in place to protect users. According to\u00a01X, owners must schedule times for U.S.-based experts to operate NEO, and the circular lights on the sides of the robot's head will change color while the operator is active. 1X also says that owners have control over the operation session and that users can opt out of data sharing.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Sponsored Content\n \n Jump Into These Hot Palm Springs Summer Deals!\n \n By Palm Springs Preferred Small Hotels\n \n \nSuch safeguards are critical for home robots, especially since consumers have raised privacy and security concerns about hack-prone robotic vacuums. In 2024, multiple owners of Chinese-made\u00a0Ecovacs Deebot X2s\u00a0reported that strangers had gained access to their vacuums. In one case, a man said a voice projecting from the bot shouted obscenities. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation was able to\u00a0hack the vacuum as a demonstration, revealing security vulnerabilities. More recently, a hobbyist trying to control his own Chinese-made DJI Romo robovacuum accidentally gained control of\u00a07,000 robovacuums, and he was able to see their live feeds and IP addresses.\nMatthew Rueben, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Portland who specializes in robot-human interaction, says ongoing transparency is crucial to ensure privacy. A standard notice-and-consent framework in which consumers agree to terms and conditions once may not be enough to clearly communicate privacy risks, he argues.\nEven if a user consents to having a robot in the home, researchers have\u00a0noted, bystanders, including children, may not be aware that the robot is collecting data. To provide ongoing notice of their whereabouts, Rueben has\u00a0suggested, robots could signal their movements and tracking like expressive video game characters. Picture a yellow arrow bobbing above an NPC's head or a foe's eyes lighting up red.\nAlthough newer robots can appear quite human, Rueben says it is helpful to think of them like machines\u2014not living beings\u2014when weighing privacy risks. That way, consumers can consider the higher-level decisions behind the robot's design and the ways a company may use or process data from the robot. \"I ask questions about what kind of sensors it has and what its software actually does,\" Rueben says, \"and I try not to make any assumptions based on what a human could typically do.\"\nThe\u00a0Jetsons\u00a0world is not here quite yet. But soon, more and more humanoid robots may enter homes and unburden humans from chores. Consumers must decide how much information they are willing to offer their new helpers.\nThis article originally appeared in print under the headline \"Robot Hands Need Robot Eyes.\"",
    "published_at": "2026-09-20T10:00:15+00:00",
    "author_name": "Meagan O'Rourke",
    "site_name": "Reason",
    "section": "Technology",
    "publisher": "Reason Foundation",
    "ai_headline": "AI Companies Promise Humanoid Assistants. How Will the Robots Know What To Do?",
    "ai_simplified_title": "AI Companies Train Humanoid Robots with Video Data",
    "ai_excerpt": "AI companies are developing humanoid robots for home and work, using vast amounts of video data to train them for autonomous operation. Privacy concerns arise as these robots collect data, prompting discussions on safeguards and transparency.",
    "ai_subject_tags": [
        "Humanoid Robots",
        "Artificial Intelligence",
        "Robotics",
        "Data Collection",
        "Privacy",
        "Home Automation",
        "Machine Learning",
        "Technology"
    ],
    "ai_context_type": "Analysis",
    "ai_context_details": {
        "tone": "analytical",
        "perspective": "neutral",
        "audience": "general",
        "credibility_indicators": [
            "expert_quotes",
            "company_statements",
            "industry_examples"
        ]
    },
    "ai_source_vector": null,
    "ai_confidence_score": 0.9999999999999999,
    "ai_extraction_metadata": {
        "extracted_at": "2026-10-02T08:06:09.370488Z",
        "ai_model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
        "extraction_method": "automated",
        "content_length": 6303,
        "metadata_prompt_body_chars": 6303,
        "metadata_prompt_truncated": false,
        "url": "https:\/\/reason.com\/2026\/09\/20\/robot-hands-need-robot-eyes",
        "existing_metadata": {
            "author_name": null,
            "published_at": null,
            "domain_name": "reason.com",
            "site_name": null,
            "section": null,
            "publisher": null
        },
        "openai_refusal_gemini_fallback": false
    }
}

{
    "extracted_at": "2026-10-02T08:06:09.370488Z",
    "ai_model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
    "extraction_method": "automated",
    "content_length": 6303,
    "metadata_prompt_body_chars": 6303,
    "metadata_prompt_truncated": false,
    "url": "https:\/\/reason.com\/2026\/09\/20\/robot-hands-need-robot-eyes",
    "existing_metadata": {
        "author_name": null,
        "published_at": null,
        "domain_name": "reason.com",
        "site_name": null,
        "section": null,
        "publisher": null
    },
    "openai_refusal_gemini_fallback": false
}