Robots Like Us - EP 92 Andrew Kiguel and Matt McMullen From Realbotix

Our guests this week are Andrew Kiguel and Matt McMullen from Realbotix.

Realbotix makes humanoid robots that actually look like humans. McMullen, who founded the company, has spent years refining the animatronics and materials needed to create lifelike machines. His past creations have received tons of media attention both because they’re striking and because they veer into companionship and sex territory.

Lars and the Real Girl? Yep, that’s Matt’s work.

Realbotix, though, is an attempt to take the technology in a different direction. The company has made AI-infused bots that it wants to put to work out in the world. The bots could greet guests at hotels, provide information at hospitals or perhaps tutor students at schools. The Realbotix bots can carry on conversations and use vision systems to recognize people and take in their surroundings.

We conducted this interview in Las Vegas where Realbotix has its headquarters. In a future video on our YouTube channel, which is awesome and you should subscribe to, I head out into Vegas with a bot named Aria, and we have a delightful afternoon together.

Some of you will think these robots are weird. And I get this.

I will, however, add that most of the humanoids out there are very boring. Companies have focused on what the robots can do rather than what they look like. The folks at Realbotix, by contrast, have put a lot of time and energy into trying to figure out how humans and robots will interact and progress together. We get into all of this on the show.

SPONSOR

Some of you will be wondering, “Is this episode sponsored?”. Yeah, it is. By the wonderful people at Brex.

I’ve worked at large companies like The New York Times and Bloomberg, and their expense systems were terrible. Brex’s expense management systems, by contrast, are fantastic. AI agents run around taking care of tons of stuff for you and give you back your time.

Your company should switch to Brex to make life better for everyone. Find out more here.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
3:31 Robots Built for Conversation
5:58 An Artist Builds a Robot
15:31 Faces You Can Swap
23:40 What Does a Robot Cost?
26:17 Giving the Robot a Personality
28:32 The RealDoll Question
33:32 Can Robots Ease Loneliness?
43:52 Hotel Clerks and Robot Tutors
46:41 Hands, Eyes, and Memory
56:31 Escaping the Uncanny Valley
1:04:41 China and the Robot Bubble
1:09:24 How Unfiltered Should AI Be?