Apple might be building a humanoid robot, and I truly hope it looks like Steve Jobs lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff) | usagoldmines.com

I’m not buying that Apple is deeply invested in building a humanoid robot, but if this rumor is somehow true and the Cupertino tech giant is currently juggling actuators, servos, the mismatch of bipedal robot energy needs, and the still very real technological limits of current battery life technology, I have one hope: please let them be building a robot that looks and acts like the late Steve Jobs.

Jobs, who tragically died more than a decade ago, remains an icon of the industry and a lasting symbol of Apple’s brilliance and technological drive. Tim Cook is an excellent CEO and supply chain tactician, but Jobs was a legend.

I know the idea sounds outlandish, but then, perhaps, so is the idea of Apple wading into the humanoid robot space.

No room at the robot inn

Based on the number of companies competing to deliver consumer-grade humanoid robots (and some industrial ones, too), it might appear easy, but to understand the humanoid robot space is to take a long view. Modern humanoid robotic development traces back at least a quarter of a century, with the Honda Asimo being what I’d consider the breakthrough bot. It was short but smart and agile, and over the course of a decade, it learned to shake hands, dance, climb and descend stairs, and run in a circle. Honda spent years developing it and then abandoned it.

More recently, we have companies like Unitree, Figure o1, and 1x Neo beta. Some, like Neo, make outlandish claims like they’re ready to put a robot in your home. Trust me, no one is ready to put C-3PO in your home yet.

Apple has tremendous tech expertise, which is clearly evidenced by the Vision Pro and all that Apple Silicon has, but it has, unless I’m missing something, little experience in robotics.

Many companies that enter the field start or dream of building humanoid robots. iRobot, maker of the popular Roomba robot vacuum, started in the late 1990s by building and trying to sell a robot baby. It failed and pivoted to utility robots.

Almost 30 years later, the tech landscape is far different. There are better tools and technologies to ostensibly make humanoid robots work easier and the end products more palatable. But even today, there is a wide range of capabilities and robots that can do the most, think fluid parkour moves, live, as Boston Dynamics Atlas does, in the realm of research. No one talks about when that robot will arrive in the home or how much it might cost.

You can blame Apple oracle and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo for the latest spate of Apple robot rumors. In a recent X post, he wrote, “Apple is exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid robots for its future smart home ecosystem, and these products are still in the early proof-of-concept (POC) stage internally.”

Naturally, many fixated on the “humanoid” part while ignoring the more substantive phrase, “non-humanoid robots for its future smart home ecosystem.”

It is not news that Apple is reportedly working on some sort of robotic Home Hub that’s a mix of a HomePad, an iPad or display, and a robotic armature. It might be a desktop or kitchen top device that can swivel to “look” at you, take Siri and Apple Home Commands, play music and movies, run apps, and basically look like it has some emotional attachment to your needs.

I have no trouble believing Apple is hoping to use robotics as a hook for its flagging smart home strategy. Apple Home has failed to catch on as the ultimate intelligent home hub, but maybe it just needs a face. I think it needs more than that, but a little robotic animation that produces an imitation of life goes a long way.

As for the humanoid robot idea, well, if Apple is truly exploring something that it could deliver before the end of this decade, I say make it their own. Apple could partner up with Sophia maker Hanson Robotics. They could “skin” Apple’s humanoid with a Steve Jobs face and then dress it in his classic black turtle neck, jeans, and white Reeboks.

They could even go further and program the bot with Job’s attitude or personality. Who needs a cloying robot or a desperately polite one? Jobs Bot would have opinions and ideas, and he would push you to make them happen.

That’s the humanoid robot Apple should build. If it were building one. Which it is not.

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