1x-technologies

With pre-orders for its $20,000 NEO robot open, 1X is transparent about its strategy: early adopters will use a human-piloted "Expert Mode" to help train the robot's AI, a "social contract" built on a surprisingly lightweight, tendon-driven body.

Following days of speculation, 1X has officially announced its NEO humanoid robot is available for pre-order as a consumer product, priced at $20,000 or $499/month. The launch confirms the company's strategy to use a "human-in-the-loop" model to train its AI in real-world homes.

On the eve of its highly anticipated October 28 reveal, 1X hosted a pre-launch event at its Palo Alto HQ, offering hands-on teleoperation demos to tech figures like Andrej Karpathy, Carl Pei, and Robert Scoble. Details from the event reinforce speculation that the company is launching a home-based, teleoperated early adopter program.

Speaking at MIT, Yann LeCun argued the "big secret" of the humanoid industry is that companies lack the fundamental AI breakthroughs—specifically "world models"—needed to make robots "generally useful" in domestic settings.

Robotics firm 1X has released a cryptic teaser video pointing to a significant announcement on October 28, sparking speculation about the next phase of its plan to deploy NEO humanoids into homes.