Morning walks are about to feel like a stroll through the uncanny valley. Palo Alto startup 1X unveiled NEO, a humanoid home robot designed to automate chores and provide AI-powered assistance. The robot’s release marked a key step in the rapidly growing humanoid market expected to reach nearly $400 billion within a decade. While NEO promises advanced dexterity and conversational capabilities, it will initially rely on human guidance for tasks it hasn’t learned. Yes, someone will be monitoring and controlling its every move. This need for oversight underscores ongoing challenges in safety, trust, and autonomous learning, as humanoids face the classic chicken-or-egg problem: AI can’t improve without user data, but user data can’t be gathered without a product in the first place. The launch highlights a broader trend as companies from Tesla to Richtech Robotics push humanoids from lab prototypes into real-world environments, raising questions about labor substitution and how consumers will adapt to increasingly lifelike machines. Personally, I don’t think I like the idea of a robo-roommate touching my dirty laundry.