Science fiction has long been full of robots that look, move and even think like we do. In the real world humanoid forms have, until very recently, been a nonstarter. Hard to build, expensive, slow and lumbering, they have never made sense compared with the countless other varieties of purpose-built—and vastly more affordable—robots that have multiplied rapidly in the past decade.
That’s changing. As global demand for new kinds of robots has shot up, mass manufacturing and falling costs for components are making them cheaper to produce, writes The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 27, 2025). Just as important, new kinds of AI—some close kin to the kind that has upended the priorities of tech companies and governments since the debut of ChatGPT—are animating robot bodies in ways that simply weren’t possible even a few years ago.
More than a dozen startups worldwide are now offering humanoid robots. All have grand projections of a science-fiction future of limitless human assistance from our mechanical serfs; several already have their bots undergoing testing in real-world factories and warehouses.
A key advantage that makers tout: Unlike most current automation, humanoid robots can do more than one thing. “Humanoid robots are the first category of robots that can be doing completely different tasks based on the needs of the business or the time of the shift,” says one industry exec.
Some believe that just as chatbots are soon to attain a level of ability that could allow them to perform tasks with little or no human supervision, robots will be next. Already, the latest wave of artificial-intelligence tech—both hardware and software—is enabling robots, and in particular humanoid robots, to behave in ways that were beyond the state of the art.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Why is the field of humanoid robotics advancing quickly now?
- How are robots typically used in manufacturing?