The race is on to be the first humanoid robot that we will welcome into our homes, with companies including Tesla vying to be the first to get a viable android into our daily lives.

One of those hoping to win that race is 1X, a company based in Norway and Silicon Valley, with their humanoid robot, NEO. Dressed in a kitschy futuristic jumpsuit, NEO was recently demonstrated for Reuters at the firm's headquarters in Moss, south of the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

Bernt Bornich, CEO and founder of 1X, said: "In the long term this will be doing your laundry, cleaning your house, tidying, and generally giving you back a lot of time in life.”

He added: "In addition, it's going to be a great companion, you can talk to it, have good conversations, it can teach you things, it can be entertainment."

Bornich further explained how artificial intelligence (AI) is integral to NEO.

“Everything you see in Neo to some point is AI," he said, adding, "From how it knows how to control its own body, from how it knows how to walk in a robust manner, to how to operate objects, how to do tasks, how to handle interacting with people, body language, language itself while speaking and audio. All of this is modern AI applied to robotics."

NEO has also been designed to be 'piloted' - teleoperated by a human from a different location. Bornich said this will allow users to log into their robot avatar no matter where in the world they are. This could also enable new kinds of human-robot interaction, he said.

"(To) be able to have your friends visit in a different embodied version of remote presence, which I think is going to be really exciting to explore in the coming years,” Bornich added.

The merging of AI and engineering is significantly advancing the field of humanoid robotics. Engineers design robots to mimic human form and movement, while AI provides the 'brainpower', enabling these machines to learn from their environment, make decisions, and perform complex tasks.

The prototype version of NEO demonstrated for Reuters was piloted by humans remotely; the company said this is how 1X trains their AI models, learning from the robots working in real-world environments.

The market-ready version will use AI and remote control and will be unveiled in 2025. 1X says they can't reveal pricing details yet, but expect it to be in line with a mid-priced new car.

However, NEO will likely have a lot of competition.

Elon Musk said in October 2024 that there will be at least 10 billion humanoid robots priced between $20,000 and $25,000 by 2040. And speaking at the launch of the Tesla Robotaxi, Musk said that he believes his 'Optimus', or 'Tesla Bot', humanoid robot will be "the biggest product ever, of any kind"

Multiple startups are foraying into the robotic AI space, including Vicarious, which was acquired by Alphabet-owned Intrinsic in 2022, Universal Robots, Seegrid, and Covariant.

Beijing-based start-up Robotic Era recently released video of its STAR 1 humanoid robot demonstrating its maneuverability by traversing the challenging terrain of China's northwestern Gobi Desert.

And at the recent International Conference on Humanoid Robotics in Nancy, France, over 30 companies as well as research institutions showcased their latest robots. - Report from Reuters