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This isn’t an episode of Black Mirror. 1X, an AI and robotics company based in Palo Alto, California, has developed a humanoid robot that promises to assist humans with household chores and daily tasks. Neo, as the company claims on its website, is a “friendly home robot” that “integrates seamlessly” into everyday life to carry out “mundane tasks” so that its owner can focus on things that matter to them. The light-weight, cloth-skinned, 5’6" tall Neo can load and unload the dishwasher, fold your clothes, vacuum the home, open the door for a guest, hand you a cup of coffee, or even fetch water from the refrigerator. Neo docks itself to a charging station when it’s out of juice. All of this makes Neo a compelling contender for Man Friday. Those with impaired mobility can benefit from the presence of a 24*7 personal assistant around them. But there’s a huge catch. Neo works autonomously, but in their keynote video on the website, Neo can be seen performing two tasks autonomously: opening the door for a guest and grabbing a cup from a person’s hand. What about other chores, you ask? A real person, wearing a VR headset and using remote controls, will operate Neo from a distant location to complete them. “Expert Mode”, as the AI company calls it, will assign an “X1 Expert” who will perform for Neo. Doesn’t this breach customer privacy? When WSJ’s Joanna Stern spent time with Neo and the company’s CEO Bernt Bornich, the founder claimed that they would blur the face of owners and restrict Neo from entering restricted areas, when a third-party (a techie from X1) was remotely working at your home. The idea was to train Neo remotely before it eventually picked up tasks and performed them “autonomously” in future. In her brief time with Neo, Stern shared that spending time with Neo was akin to spending a day with a toddler who was learning to do things. “Red Flags” Neo is now available for preorder on X1’s website. It comes in two packages: a $499 monthly subscription or $20,000 (approximately ₹17.7 lakh) for full ownership in the US. However, shipping begins only in 2026, according to the website. Marques Brownlee of the MKBHD YouTube channel shared a cautionary message in his recent video, where he shared his scepticism about the workings of Neo in a home environment that came with a set of challenges. What if the robot fumbled with prescribed medicines and handed you the wrong one? The tech YouTuber also shared his qualms about the company’s promise of delivering the product in future, bringing back the overpromising and underdelivering debate, as he referenced Humane AI pin and Apple’s AI intelligence. We rummaged through the comments section of Brownlee and WSJ’s YouTube videos to gauge the general public’s initial reactions, and they had a lot of thoughts. “My Robot dropping my baby when AWS goes down,” wrote one YouTube user under MKBHD’s video titled “The Problem with this Humanoid Robot” “I can imagine the lawsuits if one of these knocks over a lit candle or something and burns the house down.” “That’s not a home helper, that’s a $20,000 surveillance intern.” “Making their skin out of cloth was a great idea. Bloods hard to clean so it will make spotting the murder bots a lot easier (sic).” “What happens if you miss a payment? Does it just walk away or beat you up?” Similar sentiments were expressed under WSJ’s YouTube video where Joanna Stern spent time with NEO. “Liked the part where when she said ‘he can pick up something heavy and try to kill me’ and ceo’s answer was ‘oh he isn’t allowed to pick up heavy objects.’ Not ‘he isn’t allowed to kill you.’ Best answer, (sic)” commented a YouTube user. “Ai (Actual Indians),” remarked another. “Payment Declined” People on X had a morbid take on Neo, with many imagining the consequences of missing a monthly subscription payment. Soon enough, “payment declined” began trending on X. “Good morning. Your payment has been declined” pic.twitter.com/Kqj2TT49bZ — dennis hegstad (@dennishegstad) October 29, 2025 “Good morning. Your payment was declined for the 3rd time and this is your final reminder to update the credit card on file.” https://t.co/VBvonZAcIV pic.twitter.com/egOVBC0Ny7 — Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) October 29, 2025 “So… the 1X NEO home robot is not actually autonomous. Behind the scenes, it’ll often be teleoperated by humans, meaning someone, somewhere, could literally remote-control a robot inside your living room. I wanted the dawn of embodied AI. Instead, I’m apparently paying $499/month for a robot avatar with a human pilot,” an X user wrote, who found the technology impressive yet dystopian.
