I have been following the release of a robot called NEO – it’s a soft, human shaped robot that walks on two legs. It can hear you, it can speak to you, and it can give you information about things. It can clean your home, organize your things, and do other home related tasks.
NEO seems pretty cool at first. It has two little button eyes that are cameras, no nose or mouth, no hair. It isn’t particularly creepy, nor is it pleasant looking. It looks like a person who got a whole body skin transplant and their new skin is made out of burlap.
If you have heard of Waymo, the self-driving cars that are now operating in Portland, OR, NEO is sort of similar. NEO is fully autonomous which means it works by itself. It doesn’t need someone controlling it from somewhere else. For more complicated tasks, or for new tasks that NEO isn’t already programmed to do, a human would need to remote control the robot, and after that, it can complete those tasks by itself without any human involvement.
Waymo cars are autonomous as well, but in certain situations, someone will control the vehicle remotely, and then release control back to the vehicle.
Back to NEO. There is nothing particularly off putting about it. You can charge it, you can talk to it, it can talk to you. If it’s eyes are cameras, where is this video all going that the robot is capturing, and who can see it? Is NEO also a server, storing this daily video of the inside of your home – your bathrooms, your bedroom?! What about all the conversations happening in your home? Your kids playing, your phone conversations, your private conversations with your spouse..?
NEO was made by 1X. 1X has a leadership team that consists of folks from Google, Tesla, and NVIDIA. The information that NEO collects inside your home is uploaded to cloud servers owned by 1X.
Those of us with smart phones know that certain social media apps are listening to our conversations in order to advertise to us more effectively. As we become more accustomed to using technology we will become increasingly trapped by a surveillance apparatus that is not exactly transparent. Since this “surveillance” exists within the devices we use in our home, we cant see it, so its really easy to forget about it. With smartphones, our apps track our location and our audio. With a home service robot, you get the added bonus of having the inside of your home surveilled as well as all your conversations listened to.
If you own a smart phone with Google apps, or social media apps like Facebook or TikTok, and then purchase NEO, a very accurate profile can be created of you that includes where you go, what you do, who you talk to, where you live and what the inside of your home looks like, what you read, what you say in the privacy of your home, what your bathroom looks like at its worst, your funny doodle notes you make when you’re on a phone call.. You get my drift. When we purchase the items ourselves that contribute to our own surveillance we are effectively funding the surveillance state without voting for it. We are purchasing the products and falling for the convenience piece without realizing what the bigger picture looks like for us personally and as a society.
I know you’re probably thinking I am only saying what I’m saying because I don’t want home service robots to completely obliterate the home service industry. You are partially right, I mean who wants their career field taken over by big tech owned surveillance robots?
The home service industry heavily involves human interaction. Many of the customers I see and speak with, it is the highlight of my day. I say this with sincerity: the recurring customers we have are people we highly value our relationship with, and would not jeopardize that by selling or sharing their information. More importantly though, I am bringing up a concept that’s important to remember about humans. Humans need other humans! Our nervous systems depend on it. With a burlap sack robot that has cameras for eyes, you wouldn’t exactly have any attachment or excitement to see it. You wouldn’t develop a friendship, like how friends can show you new hobbies, or influence you in ways you didn’t think were possible. Friends can cheer you up, friends can share your burdens. NEO is just a robot that sends your information to a cloud server owned by 1X with a leadership team made up of folks from Google, Tesla and Nvidia, who would then sell your data to third parties.
I like being in the home service industry in Portland, OR because it is a people focused business. I have met people from all walks of life.. I have seen people at their best, in beautiful and perfect looking homes, and I have seen people seemingly at their worst. Life is a series of journeys that we are not supposed to journey alone, and lots of times when people have home service businesses, or sole proprietors that enter their homes on an ongoing basis, they treat that relationship like a friendship. You really get to know people and enjoy being around them, and I don’t think a robot could effectively replace that. Yes, a robot long term would be cheaper, but cost is not solely about money, sometimes we have to weigh the cost of things around societal impact, job loss, values alignment and so on.
In the digital age, and as a small business, it has become increasingly difficult to do business without technology. After all, technology is super helpful. At Essential Cleaning we are reasonable, flexible and small enough to adapt our policies so they are in alignment with what our customers value. We care about your privacy! Get in touch with us at 503-676-4656! We serve Portland, SW Portland, Multnomah Village, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.