My Year Living with a Robot | Emily Kate Genatowski | TED

Name: My Year Living with a Robot | Emily Kate Genatowski | TED
Duration: 13 min 50 s
Description: Imagine a robot moving into your home. How would it change your daily life? Historian Emily Kate Genatowski shares five eye-opening lessons from a year living w

TED13:50Added Aug 30, 2026

Imagine a robot moving into your home. How would it change your daily life? Historian Emily Kate Genatowski shares five eye-opening lessons from a year living with her AI-powered robot roommate, from the quirky and chaotic to the surprisingly mundane. Her experiences show that the future of robots isn’t science fiction — it’s practical, messy and already here. (Recorded at TEDAI Vienna 2025 on September 26, 2025)

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

Transcript

00:03At this moment, it is exactly 10:03 GMT.
00:09But it's 12:03 here in Vienna.
00:11Why?
00:13Britain adopted GMT in 1847
00:16and formally legislated it in 1880.
00:19This decision wasn't born
00:21from some overarching philosophical discussion
00:23about the concept of time and location.
00:26It was just practicality.
00:28We needed to know when trains would be arriving and departing
00:31at any station
00:33along an expansive railroad route.
00:35This need rendered local solar times too imprecise
00:39and necessitated our modern day concept of time zones.
00:43I'm a historian,
00:44and I am fascinated by the factors
00:46that shape progress surrounding technology.
00:49From steam power to the telephone to the internet,
00:52we can track the intertwined development of society
00:55and technology as each new innovative leap is made.
00:59The technological progress of our generation is AI.
01:03Analyzing how AI will both fit into and shape our world
01:06is a fascinating topic that, more often than not,
01:10is sensationalized with these huge promises
01:12or catastrophized with disaster.
01:15But in a world that is just screaming for you to think big
01:18in order to discuss the future,
01:21as a historian, I ask you to think small.
01:25The history of technological progress
01:27and its accompanying regulatory frameworks
01:29teach us that our future with AI and robotics
01:31won't only be decided by these large,
01:33sweeping philosophical discussions,
01:35but through practicality,
01:37through the answering of thousands of practical questions
01:39that arise from the simple minutia of sharing everyday life.
01:45I have embarked upon a research project
01:46to uncover what all of these thousands of questions really are.
01:50I have spent the greater part of this past year
01:53living alongside an AI humanoid robot.
01:59I hatched this immersive research project
02:01because I already had all of these questions
02:03building up on my own, right?
02:05I have a little dog.
02:06How would my dog act around the humanoid robot?
02:09[Who is this?]
02:11(Laughter)
02:12How would the robot handle a house full of delicate antiques?
02:16With factories all over the world,
02:17working hard to get domestic AI robotics to market,
02:20and these engaging viral videos igniting curiosity
02:23and millions of people around the world,
02:25I felt that as a historian,
02:27living thoughtfully and openly with a humanoid robot,
02:31I could help to provide a glimpse into what the future could look like,
02:35start some interesting conversations, find gaps in regulation
02:39and experiment with community standards for the world around me.
02:45This is a Unitree G1 EDU-1.
02:49It's equipped with 3D lidar scanning and a depth camera
02:53and a microphone array.
02:54It has a large language model which name is BenBen,
02:58and it has AI-powered stability and movement capabilities.
03:01To me and my friends, though, this is Tova,
03:04the robot that I live with at home.
03:07Every day with Tova unearths this really wide range
03:09of practical issues.
03:11And in turn, that highlights the need for regulation
03:14in a really wide variety of spaces.
03:17Today, I'm going to share with you five practical lessons that I've learned
03:20as a historian living with a robot,
03:23and how the lessons learned at my house connect to society's future.
03:28Lesson one.
03:30You have to robot-proof your home.
03:32So I mentioned Tova has lidar scanning.
03:39And with that, there's something that's called obstacle avoidance.
03:42It sounds wonderful, right?
03:45Unfortunately, it doesn't always shield us
03:47from some clumsiness around the house.
03:50See, Tova walks and runs, and Tova gestures.
03:54And with those gestures,
03:55unfortunately for my household,
03:57I've lost like, my favorite teacup,
03:59some vases and pretty much every wine glass that I own.
04:03So I called my insurance company,
04:07and I wanted to ask them about expanding my home insurance coverage
04:10and my personal liability insurance.
04:13And I got an agent on the phone.
04:15"Hello? You've reached an agent."
04:17"Hi, it's Emily.
04:18I need to actually expand my home insurance coverage
04:21and my personal liability."
04:23"OK, what changed?"
04:25"I had an AI humanoid robot move in.
04:27(Laughter)
04:29“Hello?”
04:31They hung up on me because they thought it was a prank.
04:34(Laughter)
04:35I don't blame them.
04:37I was the first one to call about it.
04:39But autonomous robotics liability and insurance coverage
04:42is a field where practicality and immersion,
04:44they’re going to create precedents
04:46on any number of different issues, right?
04:48We need to answer questions like,
04:50I own the robot,
04:51the company programed the robot
04:53and my friend is operating the robot
04:55and the robot knocks over a vase.
04:58Who's responsible?
04:59Now I know that these questions
05:02are a little bit far from these amazing sci-fi debates
05:05about a robotic future that we love to have,
05:07but these are the types of questions that demand answers
05:10the moment one of these robots comes into your home.
05:13Lesson two.
05:14Transit with a robot is really rough.
05:17So I had the immense pleasure of introducing Tova to Vienna
05:22on an Austrian morning show on national television.
05:25And this is filmed on a soundstage.
05:27It's like way out in the outskirts of the city,
05:30and they film in the wee hours of the morning.
05:32So something to keep in mind about Tova.
05:35Tova weighs like 60 kilos
05:37and packs into this, like, giant black crate.
05:41(Laughter)
05:43Pilates.
05:44And I had to call a cab at 4am
05:47and ask the driver, "Oh, I have something.
05:49Can you just help me get something into the back of the van?"
05:53And he starts to come around the back of the van.
05:55He's already looking at me
05:56because obviously, it's four in the morning,
05:58the destination is not common.
06:01And then he sees this giant black box that's basically the size of me.
06:06And reluctantly he leans down to grab it,
06:09and as soon as he feels how heavy it is, he looks at me.
06:12(Laughter)
06:15"Is there a body in here?"
06:17(Laughter)
06:19I pause, because, kind of a body.
06:23He freaked out.
06:24I had to open it up and show him it's a humanoid robot to ease his mind.
06:28But this brings up the concept of transport regulations
06:32for humanoid robotics, right?
06:34So calling cabs for giant black boxes, it gets expensive.
06:38So I was racking my brain, thinking to myself,
06:40OK, I take the tram, the robot has legs.
06:43The robot can just walk on the tram and sit down, right?
06:46Then I thought, OK,
06:47what if the ticket inspector comes
06:49and needs a ticket if it's going to be taking up a seat?
06:52So I wrote to the Transit Authority,
06:53and I said, I really want to buy an annual card for my AI humanoid robot.
06:58This didn't go over too well.
07:00So they wrote back to me, and they said any and all requests for an annual card
07:04it has to be accompanied by registration papers of the resident.
07:09I don't have that, right?
07:11So naturally I went to the police bureau and I said,
07:14I need to register someone at my home.
07:16They said, who?
07:17I said, "My AI humanoid robot."
07:19And they kicked me out the door.
07:21(Laughter)
07:22I don't blame them at all, obviously.
07:25But I do think that if these robots
07:27are going to be helping us manage our lives and our homes,
07:31this innately comes with them occasionally venturing outside, right?
07:34They could go somewhere with us and just accompany us.
07:36They could hold something for us.
07:38Or they could run to the store
07:40when we're in the middle of cooking a recipe
07:42and we forget an ingredient.
07:43We need to facilitate and regulate a way for them to do that safely
07:47that works for the robots and the owners
07:49and the other people living in the city who don't have robots,
07:53and the city itself.
07:55Lesson three is that robots aren't always welcome.
07:59So of course, as you can imagine,
08:00I have friends who call me up, and they beg me,
08:02"I'm having a party this weekend.
08:04Bring the robot, it's so cool.
08:06Bring the robot, I want the robot at my party."
08:08On the other hand, I have colleagues who will send me a message in the morning,
08:12"If you don't want to bring the robot today, that's fine."
08:15And they don't want it there.
08:18I respect that there are certain rules that have begun to develop and emerge
08:22surrounding where the robot is welcome and where it's not, right?
08:25I have a domestic robot,
08:27so it's not really wanted or needed
08:29in the faculty rooms at the university where I work.
08:32My friends who have toddlers just learning to walk,
08:35we don’t want it around them in their house.
08:38And it hasn’t been permitted to visit houses of worship.
08:41These restrictions and requests, they're completely informal,
08:45but they're completely respected by me.
08:48What happens when thousands or millions of these robots
08:51are shipped all over the world to different people,
08:54different communities that have different perspectives on this, right?
08:58So we really need to formulate community standards.
09:02And the community standards
09:03can talk about where the robots are welcome, where they're not,
09:06what they can do, what they can't do.
09:08This can take any number of very interesting forms.
09:11So we could have robot zones and no-go zones,
09:14and it could kind of be like where we let e-scooters and e-bikes go
09:18and throttle them when they're in the wrong area.
09:21Or this could be like when you go to the supermarket
09:24and they say no pets are allowed in the icon in the window,
09:27and be decided upon like a policy, each building or business.
09:31Or this could look like government-issued ID cards for robots,
09:36but they're individually given permissions.
09:38This is like where they can go, what they can do,
09:40approved and managed by a centralized regulation office
09:43with like, trainings and licensing and things like this.
09:46It's completely up to us to decide.
09:49Lesson four is that you can send your robot to work.
09:52So Tova was at home and I went out with a friend
09:55who had just opened up a local cafe.
09:58And jokingly he was like,
10:00"Oh, let's bring Tova to help out around the store.
10:02This is such a good idea."
10:03We had a laugh about it, but it was like, playing over in my mind, in my mind.
10:07And then we brought it over, and it learned how to help out at a store.
10:13Now this discussion of labor displacement by AI and robotics,
10:18it's one of those discussions that just attracts those large,
10:21catastrophic statements.
10:23I'm sure you've all heard them.
10:24“Robots are taking our jobs.”
10:25“No one’s going to have a job in the future.”
10:28These are obviously such interesting, fascinating
10:33and terrifying conversations.
10:35The conversations that I would love us to be also having alongside that
10:39are of a more practical nature, right?
10:42What does a fair tax system look like
10:45to facilitate the advantages for business owners
10:47of bringing in robotic workers,
10:49of automating using AI to increase efficiency
10:52while still contributing to the public funds
10:54that support our communities, right?
10:56Are we taxing just the sale of the robot,
10:58or are we taxing the value that it adds?
11:01Are we going to put those funds into our current social systems,
11:06or are we going to scrap it
11:07and try to develop universal basic income system instead?
11:11These broad fear-mongering statements,
11:13they have to give way to practical discussions
11:16about how to preserve our financial systems,
11:19while still allowing us to embrace the efficiencies offered by AI.
11:24Lesson five is that robots really bring out the best in us
11:27and the worst in us.
11:29So I mentioned I have a dog.
11:31I walk my dog in the square every morning, and I bring my robot.
11:35And the reactions that I get, they run the gamut.
11:38So one day I had a mom,
11:41and she was standing pretty much as far back
11:43as a human could stand from the robot,
11:45but encouraging her kids, "Go talk, talk."
11:48And they were asking such good questions.
11:50"What should I study at school if I want to work with a robot?"
11:53"Can you make the robot wave at me?"
11:55"Can I race the robot in the square?"
11:57Very sweet.
11:58In addition,
11:59the following day, I had an older gentleman walk up
12:03and try to break Tova's arm right off of its body.
12:06Exactly.
12:07And when I said to him, "What are you doing?"
12:10He said, "Oh, um, a good old-fashioned firm handshake, for sure."
12:14Yeah, OK, it looked like that.
12:16So the bottom line is that people, they have these very,
12:20very wide reactions, right?
12:22And this can be due to any number of factors.
12:25We have age, gender, culture.
12:28And interestingly enough, media preconceptions.
12:32This is like everything from what they were scrolling on that morning
12:35and seeing a brand new video,
12:37to their first introduction to robotics.
12:40If that was Mr. Data on "Star Trek" or C-3PO in "Star Wars"
12:44or Rosie on "The Jetsons,"
12:46everybody comes with this like really, really,
12:49sort of a whole history behind them.
12:52And when they finally get in front of a robot,
12:55it can be so disappointing, so disappointing.
12:59I think we need to have a lot more interaction
13:01between the public and robotics,
13:03so that we can actually show people where we're at
13:05and give a more accurate understanding
13:07so that we can regulate and have discussions for reality
13:10in a more practical format.
13:13The invisible hand of practicality
13:15will continue to shape the trajectory of history
13:17as we move into the future.
13:19So instead of being wrapped up
13:21in the sensationalism of fear or excitement,
13:24I ask that we bring these discussions down into reality,
13:28that we embrace the practical nature of life alongside embodied AI
13:33as we prepare to regulate the future together.
13:35So next time that somebody tries to talk to you about the robot apocalypse,
13:40I want you to turn to them and say,
13:42"OK, OK, OK.
13:43But do you think that robots need a ticket on the tram?"
13:47Thank you.
13:48(Applause)