I'm Drew PRNDL and this is "Robots Everywhere", a show where we chronicle the slow but steady takeover of our robot overlords and show you how they're making their way into practically every facet of our lives.

So, here's the deal: robots still kind of suck at household chores. They're getting better, but they're definitely nowhere near what we were promised. Take Roomba for example. Sure, it can vacuum your carpet, but it also can't tell the difference between a dust bunny and a dog turd. Or look at this laundry folding robot which can technically get the job done, but moves at the speed of dial-up internet.

Clearly, there's still plenty of room for improvement here. The problem is that while household chores are fairly easy for us humans - simple sounding tasks like making a cup of coffee or folding a pillowcase - they require a ton of little skills, like spatial reasoning and fine motor control. That despite being easy for even the dumbest human requires extremely advanced programming for a robot to pull off.

Think about it: in order to walk into your house sight unseen and make a cup of coffee for you, a robot would first have to understand what a kitchen is, how to identify it, and that's where coffee is usually stored. How do you even program something like that? Even if a robot can do those things, it would then have to navigate to the kitchen, understand that the coffee is probably in a cupboard somewhere, open your cupboard doors, recognize what the coffee looks like, and use fine motor skills to grab the container and scoop out some beans without breaking anything.

That series of events is wildly complex. I mean yes, it's easy for us humans but it's insanely complicated for a robot and the same can be said of tons of other chores. Unfortunately, we're not quite at the point where we can go out and buy a single robot that's capable of doing all your household tasks for you.

But what we do have is a bunch of robots that can do very specific tasks pretty damn decently. The example everybody knows is robotic vacuums, but did you know that there's also robotic mops, robotic lawnmowers, robotic window cleaners, robotic grill scrubbers, robotic gutter cleaners, and even robotic countertop sanitizers? These are all single-task robots that can only do one thing, but they can do that one thing pretty well.

Now, here's the exciting part: just a few years ago none of these household robots could work together, but now thanks to advances in AI, many of them can be strung together and controlled via yet another robot - Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. Just about every new household robot released lately is built with Alexa compatibility, so you can literally just say "Alexa, turn on the vacuum" or "Alexa, fire up the lawnmower" and your AI smart speaker will then pass that message to the worker robot that will carry out the actual job.

So, in a way, we do have a single robot that can do all of our household chores for us - it's just not that singular robot that's doing all the work itself. Instead, it's acting more like a director and delegating those tasks to a team of specialized worker robots that can actually carry out the job. Another way to think about it is that we have a distributed household robot instead of the centralized one that science fiction has been promising us all these years.

In many ways, that's actually a much smarter approach. First of all, a super advanced do-it-all robot could still only do one task at a time, but a network of single-tasker robots could perform a bunch of different chores simultaneously. Second of all, if you have one robot that does everything and it breaks down, it can't do any chores at all. But if you have a network of robots doing separate tasks, it doesn't really matter if your Roomba stops working - your robot lawnmower and your grill scrubber wouldn't be affected.

Really, I think science fiction actually had it wrong this whole time. The homes of the future won't have one Butler bot that does all your household chores by itself, instead what's far more likely is that the home of the future will have robots everywhere.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI don't know about you but for practically my entire life science fiction has been promising a utopian future in which I'd have robotic servants to do my bidding there was Rosie the robotic maid from the Jetsons there was c-3po from Star Wars and let's not forget about Bicentennial man that 1990s movie where Robo Robin Williams trades in his tin man getup for a skin suit with hairy knuckles all of these movies promised the same thing a not so distant future where we could buy robots to do all the stuff that we're too lazy to do ourselves but is that the future we got I'm drew PRNDL and this is robots everywhere a show where we Chronicle the slow but steady takeover of our robot overlords and show you how they're making their way into practically every facet of our lives so here's the deal robots still kind of suck at household chores they're getting better but they're definitely nowhere near what we were promised take Roomba for example sure it can vacuum your carpet but it also can't tell the difference between a dust bunny and a dog turd or look at this laundry folding robot which can technically get the job done but moves at the speed of dial-up internet clearly there's still plenty of room for improvement here the problem is that while household chores are fairly easy for us humans simple sounding tasks like making a cup of coffee or folding a pillowcase still require a ton of little skills like spatial reasoning and fine motor control that despite being easy for even the dumbest human require extremely advanced programming for a robot to pull off think about it in order to walk into your house sight unseen and make a cup of coffee for you a robot would first have to understand what a kitchen is how to identify it and that that's where coffee is usually stored how do you even program something like that even if a robot can do those things it would then have to navigate to the kitchen understand that the coffee is probably in a cupboard somewhere open your cupboard doors recognize what the coffee looks like and then use fine motor skills to grab the container and scoop out some beans without breaking anything that series of events is wildly complex I mean yes it's easy for us humans but it's insanely complicated for a robot and the same can be said of tons of other chores so unfortunately we're not quite at the point where we can go out and buy a single robot that's capable of doing all your household tasks for you but we do have the next best thing right now we have a bunch of robots that can do very specific tasks pretty damn decently and if you were to get a bunch of them together you could theoretically hand over most of your chores to machines the example everybody knows is robotic vacuums but did you know that there's also robotic mops robotic lawnmowers robotic window cleaners robotic grill scrubbers robotic gutter cleaners robotic countertop sanitizers and even robotic pets that free from the tyranny of cleaning up litter boxes and scooping up poop in your backyard these are all single task robots that can only do one thing but they can do that one thing pretty well now here's the exciting part just a few years ago none of these household robots could work together but now thanks to advances in AI many of them can be strung together and controlled via yet another robot Amazon's Alexa voice assistant just about every new household robots that released these days is built with Alexa compatibility so you can literally just say Alexa turn on the vacuum or Alexa fire up the lawnmower and you're AI smart speaker robot would then pass that message to the worker robot that would then carry out the actual job so in a way we do have a single robot that can do all of our household chores for us it's just not that singular robot that's doing all the work itself instead it's acting more like a director and delegating those tasks to a team of specialized worker BOTS that can actually carry out the job of cleaning your gutters or scrubbing your toilet another way to think about it is that we have a distributed household robot instead of the centralized one that science fiction has been promising us all these years in a lot of ways that's actually a much smarter approach first of all a super advanced do-it-all robot could still only do one task at a time but a network of single Tasker BOTS could perform a bunch of different chores simultaneously second of all if you have one robot that does everything and it breaks down it can't do any chores at all but if you have a network of BOTS doing separate tasks it doesn't really matter if your Roomba stops working you're a robot lawn mower and your grill scrubber wouldn't be a I did it all so really I think science fiction actually had it wrong this whole time the homes of the future won't have one Butler bot that does all your household chores by itself instead what's far more likely is that the home of the future will have robots everywhereI don't know about you but for practically my entire life science fiction has been promising a utopian future in which I'd have robotic servants to do my bidding there was Rosie the robotic maid from the Jetsons there was c-3po from Star Wars and let's not forget about Bicentennial man that 1990s movie where Robo Robin Williams trades in his tin man getup for a skin suit with hairy knuckles all of these movies promised the same thing a not so distant future where we could buy robots to do all the stuff that we're too lazy to do ourselves but is that the future we got I'm drew PRNDL and this is robots everywhere a show where we Chronicle the slow but steady takeover of our robot overlords and show you how they're making their way into practically every facet of our lives so here's the deal robots still kind of suck at household chores they're getting better but they're definitely nowhere near what we were promised take Roomba for example sure it can vacuum your carpet but it also can't tell the difference between a dust bunny and a dog turd or look at this laundry folding robot which can technically get the job done but moves at the speed of dial-up internet clearly there's still plenty of room for improvement here the problem is that while household chores are fairly easy for us humans simple sounding tasks like making a cup of coffee or folding a pillowcase still require a ton of little skills like spatial reasoning and fine motor control that despite being easy for even the dumbest human require extremely advanced programming for a robot to pull off think about it in order to walk into your house sight unseen and make a cup of coffee for you a robot would first have to understand what a kitchen is how to identify it and that that's where coffee is usually stored how do you even program something like that even if a robot can do those things it would then have to navigate to the kitchen understand that the coffee is probably in a cupboard somewhere open your cupboard doors recognize what the coffee looks like and then use fine motor skills to grab the container and scoop out some beans without breaking anything that series of events is wildly complex I mean yes it's easy for us humans but it's insanely complicated for a robot and the same can be said of tons of other chores so unfortunately we're not quite at the point where we can go out and buy a single robot that's capable of doing all your household tasks for you but we do have the next best thing right now we have a bunch of robots that can do very specific tasks pretty damn decently and if you were to get a bunch of them together you could theoretically hand over most of your chores to machines the example everybody knows is robotic vacuums but did you know that there's also robotic mops robotic lawnmowers robotic window cleaners robotic grill scrubbers robotic gutter cleaners robotic countertop sanitizers and even robotic pets that free from the tyranny of cleaning up litter boxes and scooping up poop in your backyard these are all single task robots that can only do one thing but they can do that one thing pretty well now here's the exciting part just a few years ago none of these household robots could work together but now thanks to advances in AI many of them can be strung together and controlled via yet another robot Amazon's Alexa voice assistant just about every new household robots that released these days is built with Alexa compatibility so you can literally just say Alexa turn on the vacuum or Alexa fire up the lawnmower and you're AI smart speaker robot would then pass that message to the worker robot that would then carry out the actual job so in a way we do have a single robot that can do all of our household chores for us it's just not that singular robot that's doing all the work itself instead it's acting more like a director and delegating those tasks to a team of specialized worker BOTS that can actually carry out the job of cleaning your gutters or scrubbing your toilet another way to think about it is that we have a distributed household robot instead of the centralized one that science fiction has been promising us all these years in a lot of ways that's actually a much smarter approach first of all a super advanced do-it-all robot could still only do one task at a time but a network of single Tasker BOTS could perform a bunch of different chores simultaneously second of all if you have one robot that does everything and it breaks down it can't do any chores at all but if you have a network of BOTS doing separate tasks it doesn't really matter if your Roomba stops working you're a robot lawn mower and your grill scrubber wouldn't be a I did it all so really I think science fiction actually had it wrong this whole time the homes of the future won't have one Butler bot that does all your household chores by itself instead what's far more likely is that the home of the future will have robots everywhere\n"