We Finally Got a Robot on the Show | EP 161

This week, we’re joined by Bernt Bornich, chief executive of 1X. We talked with him about NEO, his company’s new humanoid robot, which has the internet buzzing. Then we meet NEO itself, and compare notes on the experience. Finally, we close the week with a roundup of tech news headlines: It’s time for some HatGPT. For more on this episode, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/podcasts/hardfork-neo-humanoid-robot.html Guest: Bernt Børnich, chief executive of 1X Additional Reading: I Tried the Robot That’s Coming to Live With You. It’s Still Part Human. https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/i-tried-the-robot-thats-coming-to-live-with-you-its-still-part-human-68515d44 Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/technology/humanoid-robots-1x.html There Are More Robots Working in China Than the Rest of the World Combined https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/business/china-factory-robots.html Trump Pardons Founder of the Crypto Exchange Binance https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/technology/trump-pardons-cz-binance.html For Podcasters, a Voice Clone Is a Double-Edged Sword https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/arts/podcast-ai-voices-clones.html Chapters: 00:00:00 - Coming up 00:00:42 - RIP KitKat 00:01:44 - This week on the show 00:02:00 - Interview with 1X C.E.O. Bernt Børnich 00:35:04 - Meeting Neo, Hard Fork's first humanoid robot guest 00:51:26 - Our favorite game: HatGPT! Hard Fork is a weekly look into the future that's already here. Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore stories from the bleeding edge of tech. Casey’s publication, Platformer: https://www.platformer.news/ FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork Insta: Kevin Roose - https://www.instagram.com/kevinroose/ Casey Newton - https://www.instagram.com/crumbler/ Twitter (X): Kevin - https://x.com/kevinroose Casey - https://x.com/CaseyNewton Threads: Kevin - https://www.threads.net/@kevinroose Casey - https://www.threads.net/@crumbler Subscribe to the audio only podcast: Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hard-fork/id1528594034 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/44fllCS2FTFr2x2kjP9xeT?si=86ba626802b849cd Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7c7fe198-e6a8-41a8-b0fe-1d46b976dcd8/hard-fork YouTube Music - https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB9gMmtMLXxsa8C0PzHFL2tJFh7FrKrYD&si=Fwb9Uwon1ZneNsBp The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork Hard Fork is produced by Whitney Jones and Rachel Cohn. Edited by Jen Poyant. This episode was fact-checked by Will Peichel and was engineered by Katie McMurran. Original music by Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman, Diane Wong, Pat McCusker, Rowan Niemisto, Leah Shaw Dameron, Alyssa Moxley and Dan Powell. Video production by Sawyer Roque, Jake Nicol and Chris Schott. Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Dahlia Haddad, and Jeffrey Miranda. Video QC by Isabella Anderson. Podcast Art Direction by Benjamin Wilkerson Tousley. Podcast Art & Animations by Julian Hespenheide. Additional Motion graphics by Phil Robibero. Thumbnails by Julia Moburg and Julee Victoria Rene.