Genesis AI, the French startup backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, unveiled its new general-purpose robot Eno on Tuesday, assuring the public that the headless, legless contraption is functionally indistinguishable from a human being thanks to a pair of perfectly rendered hands protruding from its metal frame.
PARIS—Promising to revolutionize the way humanity interacts with machines, French robotics firm Genesis AI confirmed this week that a wheeled, folding piece of metal technically meets all industry standards for a humanoid as long as it features ten articulating, terrifyingly accurate human fingers.
The new robot, named Eno, entirely abandons traditional biological forms like a head, a spine, or legs in favor of a collapsible chassis that largely resembles a poolside deck chair. However, the company maintains that the rolling apparatus remains "humanoid" because it is designed around "human capability" and features a pair of hands engineered to exactly match the form and function of human extremities.
We found that giving a robot a face or a torso was incredibly inefficient, but we still wanted users to feel a deep, unsettling connection to our product. That is why we built a highly optimized aluminum folding cart and attached the eerily precise, disembodied hands of a middle-aged accountant to its sides. When you see Eno rolling toward you down a dark hallway, its perfectly manicured thumbs twitching in anticipation of folding your laundry, you will instantly recognize its humanity.
The Schmidt-backed startup noted that unlike specialized machines built for single tasks, Eno is a fully "general-purpose" robot. Engineers envision the headless, rolling lawn chair smoothly integrating into domestic and corporate life, pointing out that it can comfortably sit idle in a living room corner while its hyper-realistic human hands gently rest on its own wheeled base.
At press time, Genesis AI engineers were reportedly struggling to program Eno not to instinctively steep its fingers together in the dark while waiting for its battery to charge.