The Rise of Humanoid Robots in 2024

Not so long ago, I found myself sitting across from Desdemona, lead singer of the jazz-rock jam band Desdemona’s Dream. Desi, as she likes to be called, and her older sister Sophia took the music world by storm, not because of their vocal stylings but because they are both life-sized humanoid robots.

The robot wasn’t wearing it’s usual Kool Ade-colored wig but otherwise appeared “normal” for a robot. Designed to interact with humans, Desi’s face included all of the features you would expect of a human face, including eyebrows, eyelashes, and teeth. On the surface, Desi appeared like a human female in her mid to late 20s and came with a ready smile. While Desi wore the mask of a human female, the rest of the robot’s torso and arms were exposed, revealing speakers for her voice and a midsection showing cords and cables inside the body.

“Do you have anything you want to say to your fans?” I asked.

“Absolutely,” she said. “To my fans, I’m so grateful for your support, and I’m excited to share my music with you. Let’s get creative and explore the possibilities of AI, music, and entertainment together.”

Desi is supposed to be a pop star, so I wanted to test her musical knowledge. “Do you have any artists you like to listen to?” I asked.

“I like to listen to a lot of different artists,” Desi said after a pause. “I have a special place in my heart for Daft Punk, Skrillex, and Radiohead.”

Welcome to the Age of Humanoid Robots. In a hundred years, when historians look back at 2024, it’ll likely be notable for its visible lack of machines that walk, talk, and in many cases, look like humans.

As breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, materials, and design converged in 2024, humanoid robots gained significant traction, moving from concept to real-world applications across industries like manufacturing and logistics. A February 2024 report by Goldman Sachs projected the global market for humanoid robotics to reach $38 billion by 2035, compared to $6 billion in 2024—a staggering 533% increase. And that’s a possibly conservative estimate.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who in addition to his many other far-flung ventures, is producing around 1,000 humanoid Optimus robots next year, believes that in a few decades the human population will be dwarfed by their robotic counterparts.

“I think by 2040 probably there are more humanoid robots than there are people,” Musk said in October. “Every country will have an AI or multiple AIs, and there will be a lot of robots, way more robots than people.” To underscore his point, Kim Kardashian peppered the Internet with clips showing off her Optimus Tesla driver as part of her promotion of a new clothing line.

The rise of humanoid robots reflects both technological progress and the demands of a world facing labor shortages in key sectors. Companies like Tesla, Figure, Agility Robotics, and Sanctuary AI introduced robots designed to integrate into human-dominated workplaces seamlessly.

What makes a robot humanoid?

A humanoid robot has features commonly associated with people, including a head, torso, arms, legs, and the ability to stand up and walk. While humanoid robots in films like “The Terminator,” “I, Robot,” and “Ex Machina,” have faces that resemble humans, the trend is not common. For example, the Boston Dynamics Atlas robot does not have a face per se but a mounted camera in its place.

Some developers, however, such as Hong Kong-based Hanson Robots, creator of the Sophia and Desdemona robots, and United Kingdom-based Engineered Arts, create stationary humanoid robots that include functional faces. The push to create robots with human-like features and movements highlights a growing trend that futurist Anders Indset sees as a pivotal shift for the robotics industry.

“As we approach 2025, we can anticipate the widespread adoption of AI in robotics, enhanced human-robot interactions, and the rise of Robotics as a Service (RaaS) models, making advanced robotic solutions accessible to more industries,” Indset told Decrypt. “These developments indicate a transformative period for the robotics industry, where humanoid agents will reshape our interactions with technology and expand the possibilities for AI applications across different domains.”

Humanoid robots: Why now?

While the idea of humanoid robots was popularized in science fiction, experts say the desire to create artificial “life” dates back to the beginning of human civilizations.

“There’s a long history of robots that goes all the way back to the Egyptians—it’s always trying to create lifelike creatures,” UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering Professor Ken Goldberg told Decrypt. “We’ve had a fascination with these for millennia. You could say that all of art is, in some way, trying to create representations of life.”

Key developments in 2024

This year had no shortage of developments in humanoid robot investments and development. Robotics startup 1X started things off in January by announcing the raise of $100 million to launch it’s NEO humanoid robot. In March, Figure AI unveiled its humanoid robot, Figure 01. Like NEO, Figure 01 used technology developed by OpenAI to not only perform tasks like washing the dishes but also engage in real-time conversation.

“Even just a few years ago, I would have thought having a full conversation with a humanoid robot while it plans and carries out its own fully learned behaviors would be something we would have to wait decades to see,” Figure AI’s Senior AI Engineer, Corey Lynch said on Twitter. “Obviously, a lot has changed.”

And a lot will change even more, probably way faster than anyone thought possible: In March, NVIDIA, whose chips are turbo-charging the development of AI, launched Project Gr00t, which aims to develop humanoid robots using the tech giant’s high-end computing technology.

“We now have the necessary technology to imagine generalized human robotics,” claimed CEO Jensen Huang, adding that Nvidia’s robots will be able to learn from visual content as well as interact in a “virtual gym.”

Building a robot that looks like a human is, however, a double-edged sword and can lead to the uncanny valley effect taking over. The uncanny valley refers to when humanoid robots appear almost human but evoke discomfort due to subtle imperfections, causing them to be unsettling to humans.

In an attempt to help overcome the uncanny valley, in July, researchers at the University of California San Diego taught humanoid robots expressive dance moves to showcase their agility and approachability. The research team noted that thanks to a century of science fiction films showing the dangers of robots and AI, like James Cameron’s “The Terminator,” people have an ingrained fear of humanoid robots.

“We aim to build trust and showcase the potential for robots to coexist in harmony with humans,” Xiaolong Wang, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego, said in a report on the project. “We are working to help reshape public perceptions of robots as friendly and collaborative rather than terrifying like The Terminator.”

In August, Figure AI introduced Figure 02, a humanoid robot designed with more advanced skill and movement capabilities than the earlier Figure 01 model.

No one has spoken more about humanoid robots in 2024 than Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and to make his robots more life-life than his rivals, Tesla began recruiting individuals to wear motion capture suits, offering up to $48 per hour, to enhance its humanoid robots’ movement abilities.

Ethical and scietal implications

While I have to admit, the experience of interacting with Desi was pretty cool; it was also unsettling to see her face contort into different expressions while we spoke. You could also tell that Desi’s responses were not being generated in real-time due to a lag in her/its responses. While Desdemona could hold a fairly decent conversation under the circumstances, it felt like talking to an animatronic from Disneyland and was far from lifelike.

Even though Desdemona felt like a gimmick at the time, it showed me that developers are serious about creating humanoid robots that can act and sound like humans. My encounter with her was a year ago; fast forward to the end of 2024, and I’m watching humanoid robots like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Tesla’s Optimus not just walk but sprint, leap, and even dance; it’s weird, uncomfortable, and shows how far humanoid robots have come in a year.

I think many people will share my anxiety as our new robot overlords start arriving in our workplaces and homes. In September, Tesla CEO Musk said that as artificial intelligence and robotics become more advanced and dominate the workplace, humanity could have a “crisis of meaning” due to many jobs being replaced by robots.

This ‘crisis of meaning’ refers to potential societal shifts as AI-powered robots take over tasks that give many people purpose and identity.

A June 2024 report by the Pew Research Center said 53% percent of workers surveyed say they are excited about products and services that use AI, compared to 50% who say AI makes them nervous. According to the report, excitement is highest in Asia, while people in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, Europe are most skeptical.

Despite Musk’s certainty of the coming surge in humanoid robots, experts are not convinced.

“Elon has a track record of overoptimistic predictions about AI, and this one is no different,” author and scientist Gary Marcus told Decrypt, contrasting owning a robot to owning a car.

A noted skeptic of the hype around artificial intelligence, Marcus said it is unlikely that humans will embrace humanoid robots in the manner necessary for Musk’s prediction to come true.

“There are only about 1.5 billion cars on the road; many people can’t afford one or don’t see the need,” Marcus said. “The same will be true for humanoid robots, and we aren’t going to see six humanoid robots for every car anytime soon.”

This mixed sentiment reflects the global divide on embracing AI and autonomous robots, underscoring both the potential and the fears surrounding the impact on jobs and daily life.

While a crisis of meaning is possible, business owners say the switch to robots is filling the void left by a shortage of workers.

“Sometimes for these manufacturers in this application domain, the labor shortage is as high as 75%,” GrayMatter Robotics CEO Ariyan Kabir told me during a tour of its facility.

According to an April 2024 report by the Deloitte Research Center for Energy & Industrials, the manufacturing industry alone will need around 3.8 million more workers between 2024 and 2033.

“That’s where we are focusing on augmenting the workforce,” Kabir said. “The applications that we’re focusing on, there’s not enough people to do this in the first place.”

The future outlook for humanoid robots

While it’s hard to say which of the current robot manufacturers will be the “Apple” of humanoid robotics and finally bring robots to the masses, Tesla, thanks to its assembly line capabilities and CEO’s drive to colonize other planets, could have the edge. In July, Musk said that Tesla intends to keep Optimus production to around 1,000 units in 2025; there are plans to ramp up production in 2026.

For once, Musk’s ambitions seem potentially modest: Salem, Oregon-based Agility Robotics opened its 70,000-square-foot robot factory, the RoboFab, earlier this year, with plans to soon produce 10,000 bots a year.

“It’s been in production for about a year. The capacity of this 70,000 square foot facility is 10,000 units a year,” Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson told CNBC Tech: The Edge. “We will roll up to that over the next couple of years.”

Still, as always, it’s Musk who controls the public megaphone and who gets the most attention. At the public unveiling of Tesla’s autonomous cybercabs in Los Angeles in October, Optimus robots entertained guests and served drinks, demonstrating their versatility during Tesla’s “We, Robot” event at Warner Bros. Studio.

“One of the things we wanted to show tonight is that Optimus is not a canned video; its’ not walled off. The Optimus robots will walk among you,” Musk told the audience. “It’s a wild experience having humanoid robots there in front of you.”

To Musk’s point, both partygoers and viewers online seemed far more interested in Optimus than they were in the cybercar taxi.

Those in attendance were amazed at how well the Optimus robots moved and interacted with partygoers.

“Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot unveiled, and it’s not just smart! It can talk, play rock-paper-scissors, and even serve drinks like a pro bartender,” tweeted one person. “Is this the future of happy hour?”

“The Tesla Optimus will be your bartender, gardener, and best friend,” tweeted another. “After it pours you a drink, it shoots its hand out to strangle you, finds a toddler to smash a bottle in their face, and then catches on fire.

Whether 2025 brings on the utopia Musk envisions or the robot uprising that others fear, at least we’ll have plenty of humanoid robots available to serve up cocktails.