Humanoid robots take center stage at Silicon Valley summit

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Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors—too complicated, capital-intensive, and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui.

But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do.

Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google, and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry.

Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are “going to become the norm.”

“The combination of AI and robotics has given robotics a brand new life,” Alaoui said. “Humanoids are here to stay. Embodied AI in general is gonna just be here to stay. Robotics will change every single industry as we know it,” he added.

Disney’s contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of “Frozen” character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris this year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human—or a snowman—are already here, but the timeline for “general purpose” robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away.

Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that’s a temple to Silicon Valley’s previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon.

Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America.

China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate in 2024 “to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025,” said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinese firms dominated the expo section of the summit.

This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.

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[Robots in the exhibit hall at the Humanoids Summit]

Modar Alaoui (interview): “The humanoid summits is the largest gathering of humanoid technologies globally. It gathers people from over 50 countries working on this humanoid ecosystem.”

[Robots in the exhibit hall at the Humanoids Summit]

Modar Alaoui (interview):  “The combination of AI and robotics has given robotics a brand new life, a brand new set of use cases that have never been possible before.”

[Robots folding laundry]

Modar Alaoui (interview): “Humanoids are here to stay. Embodied AI in general is gonna just be here to stay. Robotics will change every single industry as we know it. And that includes the home, the entertainment industry, the manufacturing, the warehousing and everything else in between.”

[Chris Kudla interacting with a robot named Codey]

[Robot’s face]

Chris Kudlas (interview): “This is a social robot. So everything that we do and everything that we design is is geared toward real human interaction.”

[Robot by Mind Children]

Chris Kudlas (interview): “Our applications are in education, healthcare, and hospitality. So tutoring a student, checking in on a patient, companionship in an elder care setting, these are what we’re designing around.”

[Isaac Qureshi demonstrating a humanoid robot]

Isaac Qureshi (interview): “We’re first gonna deploy into commercial offices, cleaning spaces and slowly we’re gonna teach the Gatlin Robots more things like starting with dusting, surface cleaning, trash bins, and then the toilet. The toilet’s a big North Star.”

[Robot waving its arm]

[Robotic arms on a mannequin]

Jeff Burnstein (interview): “It looks like a person. It’s walking around, dancing, boxing, doing all these things. It’s fascinating. That’s why I think the interest is there. Now, the question is, is it going to be the form factor of the future? Do they do enough valuable work to not just be a sideshow?”

[Robotic hand in action]

Jeff Burnstein (interview): “If there’s a robot that can do all these tasks, cooking, cleaning, that would be a big boon for society. I’m just not sure we’re anywhere near that yet.”

[Three small humanoid robots]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

The related lesson for this video will be published next Tuesday.