IN FOCUS
In today’s newsletter, we look at:
- Mapping the rise of humanoid robotics companies worldwide
- OpenAI’s second DeepSeek moment
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Hi there,
One of my first memories of an android – the humanoid robot, not Google’s mobile software – was watching the character Data on the show Star Trek: The Next Generation when I was in sixth grade. Out of all the characters in the show, I was fascinated by this silvery-skinned robot with green piercing eyes who always wanted to have emotions like a human.
This theme of androids wishing to become human was something that I came across later in films such as Bicentennial Man and Steven Spielberg’s A.I.. I loved these movies because they completely subverted the usual story of robots hell-bent on obliterating humans.
Capable of feeling or not, humanoid robots are among us now, and not something expected to come in the distant future. As my colleague Duc shows in the Big Story this week, nearly 70 types of humanoid robots have emerged since Tesla launched its first prototype of Optimus in 2022. At least 51 companies have joined the quest to build androids.
Why? Because experts believe androids are more flexible than specialized industrial robots and can be a big help, especially in markets facing labor shortages due to aging populations.
But the boom has really accelerated due to advancement of generative AI, which has enabled humanoid robots to learn much faster and also boosted their reasoning abilities. This was apparent in the demo of a robot from Figure AI, which had teamed up with Open AI about a year ago.
With the current pace of AI development, it probably won’t be long before we see androids being deployed in warehouses and even in homes. Tesla, for instance, is planning to produce a small batch of its robots this year.
While humanoid robots are still a few years away from widespread adoption, people can now have their own AI interns. In this week’s Hot Take, I explore Manus, the new general AI agent from Chinese startup Monica.
— Collin
THE BIG STORY
Mapping the rise of humanoid robotics companies worldwide
Image credit: Timmy Loen
THE HOT TAKE
DEEP READS
FYI
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