In a large, brightly lit warehouse in Flowery Branch, Ga., a pair of human-shaped robots made by Agility Robotics tiptoe across polished concrete floors, their gait oddly mincing. Their legs end in narrow, hoof-like feet sheathed in custom nonslip shoes. They stoop to retrieve bins full of Spanx shapewear, then carry them to a nearby conveyor belt. While their jobs may be straightforward and menial, these “Digit” robots are a direct replacement for the humans who would otherwise be doing this work. They are also a flexible bridge between the other less versatile automated machines common in warehouses and factories. In this way, a humanoid robot like Digit represents the next step—in an evolution that stretches back to the invention of the assembly line—in the speedup and automation of processes essential to e-commerce, manufacturing, agriculture and every other part of our physical and built environment. Science fiction has long been full of robots that look, move and even think like we do. In the real world humanoid forms have, until very recently, been a nonstarter. Hard to build, expensive, slow and lumbering, they have never made sense compared with the countless other varieties of purpose-built—and vastly more affordable—robots that have multiplied rapidly in the past decade.

Full commentary : Newly powered by AI brains, these creatures of science fiction are moving toward a practical reality—stacking, sorting and lifting.