• Amazon has a growing fleet of warehouse robots to enhance safety and efficiency.
• In an internal document, Amazon said these robots are critical to flattening its hiring curve.
• Amazon automation could save the company $10 billion annually by 2030, Morgan Stanley estimates.

When Amazon unveiled its Vulcan touch-sensing warehouse robot last week, it framed the technology as a way to make frontline jobs safer and easier.

What the company didn't mention is a broader ambition: using Vulcan and its expanding fleet of warehouse robots to reduce its need to hire a lot more humans.

An internal document obtained by Business Insider describes Amazon's long-term vision of automating many warehouse tasks. The document, dated late last year, said Vulcan and similar robots are "critical to flattening Amazon's hiring curve over the next ten years" as the company builds "the world's most advanced Fulfillment Network."

This suggests Amazon is trying to use automation to slow the rate of new hiring, rather than replace existing workers. People in senior positions at the company who are familiar with the matter say the automation push is also a response to growing costs and possible labor shortages in Amazon's warehouses.

The document, marked "Amazon Confidential," was produced by Amazon's retail team to review various important projects. It also outlined several AI initiatives designed to further optimize warehouse efficiency and employee productivity.

'Higher-value tasks'

The company still plans to "have a lot of people for a long period of time," an Amazon spokesperson told BI, adding that many future roles would involve "higher-value tasks."

"Our robotics solutions are designed to automate tasks in an effort to continue improving safety, reducing repetition, and freeing our employees up to deliver for customers in more skilled ways," the spokesperson said. "Since introducing robots within Amazon's operations, we've continued to hire hundreds of thousands of employees to work in our facilities and created many new job categories worldwide, including positions like flow control specialists, floor monitors, and reliability maintenance engineers."

The spokesperson also cautioned against drawing conclusions from a specific internal company document.

A leader in automation

Amazon has been a leader in warehouse automation for years, having acquired Kiva Systems in 2012 for roughly $775 million. The company has consistently streamlined its operations through technology, integrating more than 750,000 robots to work alongside over 1 million frontline employees in storing, picking, packing, and shipping goods.

For roughly a decade, Amazon's head count grew massively, even though it was embracing automation. But this has gone into reverse in recent years.

After doubling its workforce to 1.6 million between 2019 and 2021, Amazon's head count declined to 1.55 million last year.

Humans working alongside robots

Amazon introduced Vulcan last week as its first tactile robot. It's capable of sensing and adjusting the force needed to pick products from crowded bins and tall baskets, improving safety and speed.

According to the internal document obtained by BI, Amazon's robotics team is working on at least two AI models intended to be building blocks for new applications that "will significantly enhance the efficiency and responsiveness of our robotics systems." The company is also working on a new AI model called "Tetris," aimed at reducing variable labor and transportation costs, the document said.

In the document, Aaron Parness, the director of applied science at Amazon Robotics, emphasized robots' role in enhancing efficiency and safety to ultimately enable the company to fulfill more orders and deliver more shipments.

"We've always envisioned a solution that's robots and humans working side by side," Parness wrote. "And we think the sum of the two together is better than the parts alone."

He added that automation helps Amazon retain frontline employees in a competitive labor market by improving the work environment and offering new technical career paths in maintenance and operations.

"You have to be competitive for workers," Parness said, "so that people will want to work and stay at Amazon."

A potential solution for labor shortages

Some Amazon employees told BI that machines such as Vulcan are designed not only to enhance productivity but also to help address a growing labor gap.

One employee said the company had set aggressive targets to automate much of the warehouse workload over the next decade to drive down costs. Amazon is also extensively researching how to upskill the current workforce to move them into more maintenance-related jobs, this person added.

With Amazon's continued growth, finding enough workers has become increasingly difficult, another Amazon insider told BI. If the company doesn't automate more, it will struggle to keep up with demand, this person added.

A $10 billion opportunity

Vulcan is one of several systems Amazon has introduced in recent years, including robotic arms such as Robin and Sparrow that sort orders and mobile units like Proteus that transport packages across warehouses.

Amazon's automation strategy could save as much as $10 billion annually if 30% to 40% of US orders are fulfilled through next-generation facilities by 2030, Morgan Stanley estimates.

"We expect Amazon to continue to expand its warehouse network (to support growth) while also upgrading the footprint toward next-gen robotics in new builds and retrofits," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research note earlier this year.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reaffirmed the company's commitment to automation during a February earnings call, saying its robotics investments aim to boost safety, productivity, and cost efficiency.

"We've already seen substantial value from our robotics innovations," Jassy said.

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• Elon Musk said humanoid robots would unlock "universal high income" and help boost productivity.
• He predicts tens of billions of personal robots, likening them to C-3PO from "Star Wars."
• Musk warned that AI could lead to a "Terminator"-style future if not handled responsibly.

Elon Musk thinks the future belongs to robots.

Speaking on Tuesday at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, the Tesla CEO predicted that humanoid robots could eventually number in the tens of billions, transforming the global economy.

"Everyone will want their personal robot," Musk said. "You can think of it like having your own personal C-3PO or R2-D2 — but even better," he said, referring to "Star Wars" characters.

With that scale of automation, Musk said productivity could soar and usher in what he called a "universal high income," where goods and services become so abundant that "no one wants for anything."

Musk has skin in the robot game. He called Tesla's humanoid Optimus potentially the "biggest product ever of any kind" during a launch event for its robotaxi last October.

He said Tesla aimed to make a million robots a year, although the project still faced technical and geopolitical hurdles.

Musk has been making similar predictions about robots for some time. In a February interview at Dubai's World Government Summit, in which he said humanoid robots and deep intelligence will unlock the global economy's potential by providing "quasi-infinite products and services."

He also made a comparable statement at an AI safety summit in the UK in 2023 that AI would eventually do "everything," making jobs optional and turning work into something done purely for "personal satisfaction."

Still, in Riyadh on Tuesday, he acknowledged the risks.

"You can have a James Cameron sort of movie — you know, 'Terminator.' We don't want that one," he said. "But having sort of a 'Star Trek' future would be great."

Musk told the All-In podcast last year he estimated there was a 20% risk of "human annihilation" from AI.

The CEO wants to bring Tesla's robotaxis to Saudi Arabia.

"You can think of future cars as being robots on four wheels," Musk said.

He didn't provide a timeline, though the company has said it aims to begin a robotaxi pilot in Austin in June.

Saudi officials have embraced the idea, citing autonomous vehicles as part of their Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the economy away from oil.

Uber is already moving ahead with robotaxi plans in the kingdom, partnering with Chinese firm Pony.AI and signing a new agreement with the kingdom's transport authority.

Uber also owns Careem, the dominant ride-hailing app in the Middle East.

Most robots rely on complex control systems, AI-powered or otherwise, that govern their movement. These centralized electronic brains need time to react to changes in their environment and produce movements that are often awkwardly, well, robotic.

It doesn’t have to be that way. A team of Dutch scientists at the FOM Institute for Molecular and Atomic Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam built a new kind of robot that can run, go over obstacles, and even swim, all driven only by the flow of air. And it does all that with no brain at all.

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• Amazon's latest Vulcan robot is the company's first system that can sense touch.
• The devices can reach places where workers would ordinarily have to bend or climb a step-ladder.
• Amazon says fulfillment centers will still need human workers, especially for higher-tech roles.

Amazon warehouse workers' newest high-tech colleague has a sensitive side.

The e-commerce giant's latest robot, named Vulcan, is its first system that can sense touch, enabling it to handle a wider selection of oddly shaped items than older models.

"In the past, when industrial robots have unexpected contact, they either emergency stop or smash through that contact," Amazon director of applied science Aaron Parness said in a statement.

Vulcan's arm uses force-feedback sensors that allow the robot to detect how much pressure it can apply without damaging an object, and Amazon says the tech enables the robot to pick and stow three quarters of the kinds of products that are kept at a typical fulfillment center.

The tech is currently in use at centers in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany. Amazon plans to deploy more units across the US and Europe aver the next few years.

Apart from its ability to work 20-hour shifts, Amazon also says the Vulcan robot complements human workers by helping reach items from high bins without a step-ladder, and low bins that would require crouching.

That frees up workers to focus their efforts on objects stored in mid-height bins, which the company calls their "power zone."

"Vulcan works alongside our employees, and the combination is better than either on their own," Parness said.

Parness also told CNBC that Amazon fulfillment centers will still need human workers, especially for higher-tech roles that involve installing and maintaining the expanding robot fleet.

"I don't believe in 100% automation," he told the outlet. "If we had to get Vulcan to do 100% of the stows and picks, it would never happen. You would wait your entire life. Amazon understands this."

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says Trump's tariffs will create more factory jobs.
• Many factories, however, are now using automation, including humanoid robots.
• Lutnick says human factory workers can be trained to fix and maintain those robots.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says those worried about job insecurity due to President Donald Trump's tariffs can rest assured that they — and generations of their children — will find work in factories.

Trump has pushed his tariff policy as a means to reinvigorate manufacturing in the United States, which he says could, among other things, create more jobs.

Nowadays, however, manufacturers often rely on automation to build their products. Many US companies, including automakers, plan to introduce humanoid robots to their factory floors.

In 2020, Hyundai acquired robot maker Boston Dynamics for $1.1 billion. Boston Dynamics and Hyundai announced an additional $21 billion partnership this month, which includes the purchase of tens of thousands of robots. Hyundai uses Boston Dynamics' Spot robot dogs in factories and plans to deploy its Atlas humanoid robots in the future.

Ford has also purchased Digit robots, the humanoid robot made by Agility Robotics. And Amazon has tested Digit in its fulfillment centers.

One automation company, Formic, told Business Insider earlier this month that its customers increased their overall robot usage by 17% between January and February, likely to ramp up production ahead of the tariffs.

So, what would these near-future human workers be doing in factories? Lutnick said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday that the United States should train people to be technicians for these automated machines.

"It's time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future," Lutnick said. "You know, this is the new model, where you work in these kind of plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here."

In a separate CNBC interview on April 3, Lutnick said US factories are "going to see the greatest surge in training for what we call tradecraft — teaching people how to be robotics, mechanics, engineers, and electricians for high-tech factories."

Lutnick reiterated this idea on Tuesday, saying that most auto parts plants are already "highly automated" and the thousands of people who work in them are "trained to take care of those robotic arms."

When Lutnick was asked if robots would be taking most of the jobs in the scenario he described, he replied that "all these automated arms and stuff" still need human operators to fix them.

"They all need a technician to fix them. All of these things, this is trade craft. This is high school educated, great jobs that start in the 80s and 90,000s," Lutnick said.

"It is not like how they sort of joke online, you know, Americans working the sewing machine," he added.

• Humanoid robots ran a half-marathon against humans for the first time on Saturday in Beijing.
• The race highlighted how far humanoid robots have advanced, and how far they still have to go.
• While some robots finished the race, others stumbled. They all required human handlers.

More than 12,000 people and 21 humanoid robots gathered in Beijing on Saturday morning to compete in a half-marathon.

Yes, robots.

Machine battled muscle across 13 miles during the 2025 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon, which organizers said was the first of its kind.

The participating robots raced in a separate lane from humans and came in different designs.

Noetix Robotics showed off the N2, an over 40-pound humanoid robot about 3 feet tall. Unitree Robotics entered its G1 model, which weighs nearly 80 pounds and stands over 4 feet tall. Another robot running in the race featured a woman's face. Engineers or human handlers accompanied the robots.

The People's Government of Beijing Municipality said on its website that the robotic marathoners underwent "intensive training, " including "late-night endurance drills," ahead of the race.

During a March press conference, Li Quan, deputy head of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, said the robots were given about three and a half hours to finish the course.

He added that robots could win prizes in three categories: race completion, best endurance, and most popular robot.

Although the human-humanoid half-marathon is a feat, not every robot rose to the occasion. Footage obtained by Reuters showed one robot falling over at the start line while another crashed into a railing and sent its human operator to the ground.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a robot called "Huanhuan" ran in the wrong direction at times before sitting on the ground and refusing to stand.

One robot rose above the rest: Tien Kung Ultra, designed by Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, became the first humanoid robot to cross the finish line in 2 hours and 40 minutes, the Journal reported.

Li said he hoped the event would be recognized as more than a fun weekend spectacle.

"We hope that this event will not only showcase achievements in the humanoid robotics industry but also spark discussions and deepen the public's understanding of robot capabilities, which will help accelerate industry development," he said in March.

Technological developments, like AI, have allowed humanoid robots to evolve rapidly in recent years. Some companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW have even partnered with humanoid robot companies to test robots on factory lines, though very few of these robots have been deployed worldwide.

Some in the tech sector consider China to be ahead of the United States in the humanoid robot race, pointing to events like the 2025 Spring Festival Gala in Beijing, which featured 16 AI-powered humanoid robots developed by Unitree, a Chinese company, dancing to traditional folk music with elaborate choreography alongside human dancers.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company manufactures its own humanoid robot, once said he believed humanoids would outnumber humans by 2040.

• Robots that look and move like humans are getting a lot of buzz.
• Companies, including Amazon and GXO, are already testing humanoid robots in their warehouses.
• But humanoids are expensive and complex, and the tech used to power them is still nascent.

Tech companies and investors are pouring billions of dollars into a future in which human-like robots work alongside people in warehouses, hospitals, restaurants, and homes. The goal is that humanoid robots that can carry objects and walk on two feet could help to fill labor shortages across industries and take on tasks that might be harmful to humans.

While the idea of having a robot do chores around the house might sound appealing, humanoids most often start their "careers" in warehouses and manufacturing facilities.

That's because humanoids — and robots in general — tend to work best in structured environments, CB Insights' senior lead analyst Benjamin Lawrence told Business Insider.

"A lot of factories and warehouses are very similar, so you can set up replicating tasks much more easily," he said.

"When you think of a home, for example, you need to make sure that the humanoid is safe with grandma, with the kids, with the pets, that it doesn't step on the dog's tail. You need to make sure that the humanoid is aware that there's a candle burning on that table and doesn't accidentally knock it over and cause a house fire."

Some experts are skeptical about a future filled with humanoid robots. They're expensive and complex to manufacture, and outside a handful of highly publicized tests, they're still largely unproven.

But investor interest is taking off, with companies making humanoid robots raising a collective $1.2 billion in venture funding in 2024, according to CB Insights. The sector is on track to more than double funding to $3 billion this year. Agility Robotics is raising $400 million at a $1.75 billion valuation, The Information reported earlier this month. Apptronik, which makes the Apollo humanoid robot, announced a $350 million Series A funding round in February.

Big Tech companies are also betting big on humanoids — some by supplying their foundational models to robotics manufacturers, like Google DeepMind is doing with Apptronik, and others by making both the models and the hardware themselves, like Tesla is with its Optimus robot. Big Tech views humanoids as the natural next step in AI, as the industry's interest has gone from generative AI to agentic AI and then on to physical AI. Advances in natural language processing have also made training robots simpler.

"The ChatGPT moment for general robotics is just around the corner," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in January.

'We're not 10 years away, that's for sure'

Many of the early users of humanoids are auto manufacturers. There's already quite a bit of automation in car plants, so moving on to humanoids is a natural progression, Lawrence said.

Ford was Agility's first customer, buying the first two Digit robots in 2020. The two companies had previously partnered on a last-mile delivery project. Elon Musk has said Tesla will have "genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use" this year and available to other companies at a price tag of $20,000 to $30,000 in 2026. BMW piloted humanoid robots made by Figure, using them to insert sheet metal parts into a car's chassis. And, Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics, a leader in humanoid robotics, from Softbank for $1.1 billion in 2021.

Retailers are also testing humanoids in their warehouses. Amazon is testing Digit, the humanoid robot made by Agility, in addition to the robots it manufactures in-house. Logistics giant GXO is also testing Digit and humanoids from Apptronik and Reflex Robotics.

"We are going really broad and aggressive on the category," Adrian Stoch, GXO's chief automation officer Adrian Stoch told BI in a recent interview. "It's because of where we see this going."

Just how close humanoid coworkers are to becoming a reality in warehouses is still uncertain.

There are a few roadblocks. The first is price, with a single humanoid robot costing several tens of thousands of dollars (though several manufacturers in China, including Unitree, have recently revealed models at a significantly lower price point).

The second potential roadblock is the technology itself.

"You need to have humanoids that are highly adaptable to every different warehouse, to a range of language commands, and to be able to infer those commands and work within the existing structure," Lawrence said. "It's just very difficult to do that."

The current tests are relatively small. For example, GXO has more than 1,000 warehouses and employs more than 150,000 people, yet it has just two Digit units moving heavy boxes to a conveyor belt in one facility.

"We're not at wide-scale deployment and commercial viability yet, but we're not 10 years away, that's for sure," Stoch said.

When is the human form right for the job?

There's also the question of whether robots that can walk on two feet and manipulate objects with two hands are ideal for completing tasks.

Robotic arms that can pick up and place items are now common in warehouses. There are also automated guided vehicles, or AGVs, that transport items around warehouses using predefined routes on a line or wire, and autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, that can get around on their own. Boston Dynamics has also made a robotic dog that can do things like read meters and detect leaks.

"There are very few use cases where the best robotic form is something that looks like you," Forrester analyst Paul Miller said.

He added that the work a human does could likely best be replicated with a combination of technologies, not just a robot that happens to have a similar look to a human.

"A human worker in their job does a lot of different tasks. Some of those tasks are best performed by a human being. Some tasks are best performed by software," Miller said. "Some of those tasks are best performed by a physical automation, some kind of robot."

"It's about working out how you break those tasks up."

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In January, Donald Trump announced from the White House what he called "the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history," which he said was "all taking place right here in America." Stargate Project, a $500 billion initiative to bolster the development of AI models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, is designed to keep the US ahead of the "great competition" in the global AI race, which the president called perhaps the most consequential battle for the future of humanity.

What Trump didn't mention was that while Stargate would help America vie for supremacy over AI's digital brain, the next major AI race had already begun, for its physical body. And China is leaps and bounds ahead.

A little over a week later, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, the 2025 Spring Festival Gala in Beijing was broadcast throughout China and in dozens of languages across the world. As the centerpiece of the annual blowout, a troupe of 16 AI-powered humanoid robots developed by the Chinese firm Unitree danced sprightfully, in time, with elaborate choreography set to traditional folk music alongside professional human dancers. Humanoid robots prancing across a stage is not itself the future. But China was sending a signal to the world that it wants to lead a future filled with increasingly dexterous robots.

JPMorgan forecasts a total addressable market of 5 billion humanoid robots in the coming years. Elon Musk has made even bolder predictions. By 2040 there will be at least 10 billion humanoids, outnumbering humans, he says, and Tesla's robot, Optimus, will be at the forefront of that future. "Optimus will be the biggest product of all time by far," Musk said last month. "Nothing will even be close. I think it will be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made." In various capacities, humanoids will work alongside, or in place of, humans to allow 24/7 production. They will be personal butlers and concierges in homes. They will be waiters in restaurants.

Whatever the eventual shape of humanoids in human society, China is poised to mold it. In the past five years, the country has successfully applied for 5,590 patents mentioning humanoid robots, to the United States' 1,442, according to an analysis by Morgan Stanley. Over that stretch, China has secured 22% more robotics patents than the world's 19 next most productive countries combined. China has rolled out more industrial robots into factories than every other country combined since at least 2021, according to the International Federation of Robotics. In 2024, Chinese companies brought 35 humanoids to market, two-thirds of the global total. Companies in the US and Canada released a combined total of eight.

In "America Is Missing the New Labor Economy," a lengthy report released in March, the research firm SemiAnalysis predicted that humanoids would soon reshape the global economy. "We are in the early precipice of a nonlinear transformation in industrial society," the authors wrote, adding that "the only country that is positioned to capture this level of automation is China." Unless the United States dramatically ramps up its robot capacity, the report warned, falling further behind represents "an existential threat to the US as it is outcompeted in all capacities."

"China has positioned itself quite effectively to be set to dominate the robotics sector and the robotics supply chain," William Matthews, a senior research fellow for China and the world at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, tells me. And as the robotics sector grows, he says, "what you're looking at potentially is an Industrial Revolution-like shift in the balance of power."

Not every robotics researcher and manufacturer I spoke with cast the competition in such dire terms. But each said China had several key advantages, including heavy government support, world-leading research, and, crucially, supply chain prowess.

Starting at about the time of ChatGPT's debut in late 2022, advances in generative AI have dramatically improved robots' ability to "think" quickly and interact with their environments. Local and national governments have since invested heavily in humanoid development throughout China. In 2023, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a policy document to steer development of the humanoid sector, calling it "a new frontier in technological competition." That same year, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen also unveiled policies supporting humanoid robot development, including catalyzing the use of the technology and streamlining the humanoid manufacturing supply chain. Several other provinces have followed suit in recent months. All told, local governments have invested more than $10 billion in the development of humanoids in the past three years.

It also helps that China is the world's factory. "China makes more stuff than anyone else. Their capacity dwarfs that even of the United States," says Matthews. "What you've got in China is a third of global manufacturing output, increasingly producing very high-quality manufactured goods, plus the rollout of AI systems, plus a highly sophisticated robotics industry and a huge amount of investment in it. That gives China a huge advantage."

For one, the supply advantage makes it easier to build cheaper. Unitree, for example, recently announced that its latest humanoid, G1, which, standing 4-foot-2, is touted as being able to walk at 4 ½ mph and to carry 7 pounds in its hands for up to two hours, would start at $16,000. "From a price point perspective," says Jonathan Aitken, a robotics expert at the University of Sheffield, "this is incredible." Musk has said Optimus, which he plans to begin selling in 2026, will cost $20,000 to $30,000. (Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, and Figure AI, three major US manufacturers of humanoid robots, did not respond to requests for comment.)

"The market foundation is very strong here in China," says Michael Tam, the chief brand officer at UBTech, a major Chinese humanoid robot manufacturer. "The Chinese economy has developed quite a lot via industrial robots in the last 30 years." UBTech has several humanoids in the works, including Tien Kung Xingzhe, a 5-foot-6 biped said to be able to stride at more than 6 mph and traverse sand, snow, and stairs (preorders for the $41,000 humanoid began in March). Another, the Walker S2, is under development and is expected to be deployed in car manufacturers and logistics firms, among other industrial settings. UBTech is targeting mass production of its humanoids by 2026, according to the South China Morning Post.

Supply chain supremacy also means China's competitors across the world are heavily reliant on China. Like the humans they're designed to serve and replace, humanoids are made up of thousands of parts. There's the "brain," which includes semiconductors, foundational generative AI models, and vision software. The United States has a clear advantage in the brain game. Per a February analysis from Morgan Stanley, 13 of 22 companies working on humanoid brain parts are based in America (including Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palantir), and only two are based in China.

But the investment bank estimates that only about 4% of the total cost of manufacturing a humanoid comes from the brain. The overwhelming majority is spent on the body — a range of actuators, pistons, and skeletal parts. Twenty-one of 64 companies building body parts for humanoids are based in China; 17 are in the US. All told, about 56% of the world's humanoid supply chain companies are based in China. In particular, China has the corner market on an advanced and costly type of ball screw known as the planetary roller screw — which is essential to most of today's cutting-edge humanoids. Trump's tariffs on China, which have now reached 145%, are likely to push up the bill of materials for the average robot for many manufacturers.

It's still very early days in the humanoid industry, and how widely humans will embrace working alongside or being replaced by their machine counterparts is far from certain. But the state of the race is clear. "Unless serious and massive action is taken soon in the United States, in Europe, in Japan and South Korea," says Matthews, "it'll be very hard to compete with China in the long run." For now, the war over robots is China's to lose.

Chris Stokel-Walker is a journalist who focuses on the tech sector and its impact on our daily lives. He is the author of "How AI Ate the World," published in 2024, as well as "TikTok Boom," "YouTubers," and "The History of the Internet in Byte-Sized Chunks." Alongside his reporting, he teaches journalism at Newcastle University.

Correction: April 14, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of UBTech's chief brand officer. He is Michael Tam, not Michael Tan.

• Ukraine is testing new ground robots controlled by fiber-optic cables.
• It's a follow-up to the emergence of fiber-optic FPV drones, which Ukraine and Russia both operate.
• Fiber-optic cables are resistant to electronic signal jamming, unlike radio frequency connections.

Ukraine is working on new kinds of fiber-optic combat drones that can break through Russian jamming. These don't fly like the others; they're ground robots.

Brave1, a Ukrainian government operation that facilitates innovation within the defense industry, told Business Insider that fiber-optic-controlled drones are in high demand with Kyiv's military because they're resistant to traditional electronic warfare.

The operation recently hosted an event in Ukraine where seven fiber-optic UGVs were tested. Compared to the fiber-optic first-person-view, or FPV, drones that fly in combat daily, the technology is still in the early stages, but the organization said that it had identified a few promising robots.

Brave 1 said that, based on the tests, the best roles for fiber-optic-controlled UGVs are likely combat or self-detonation missions rather than logistics tasks, where a robot moving back and forth on the same route could get its cables tangled or snagged on an object on the ground.

Unlike radio frequency connections, which are vulnerable to electronic signal jamming, fiber-topic cables preserve a steady link between a drone and its operator over a range of several miles. They are difficult to defend against and provide high-quality video transmission.

Fiber-optic cable connections have been limited to FPV drones, but Ukraine is now looking to expand the use of this technology to uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) due to Russian electronic warfare and because radio waves can be affected by terrain. The fiber-optic cables can help ensure a more stable connection.

UGVs are remote-controlled robots that can execute logistics and combat missions, such as delivering ammunition to the front lines, evacuating wounded soldiers, launching assaults on troop positions, placing land mines, and exploding beside armored vehicles.

A senior Ukrainian official previously told BI that he believed UGVs would be the "next game-changer technology" of the war.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have already used these robots in combat. Some are equipped with machine guns and thermal-imaging cameras for nighttime missions.

New fiber-optic UGVs would be an evolution in this technological space.

Fiber-optic cables "can also serve as an alternative communication channel for controlling UGVs in situations where other types of connection are unavailable due to strong EW interference," Brave1 said.

Brave1 explained that because it now knows UGVs can operate with fiber-optic cables, the organization needs to develop tactics for the robots. It is doing so with help from the Ukrainian military and security forces. Kyiv plans to obtain thousands of these systems this year.

The UGV tests are the latest example of electronic interference fueling a high-stakes technology race between Ukraine and Russia. The two militaries are constantly looking for innovative solutions to keep their drones and robots going.

Ground robots have been less common during the war than the swarms of aerial drones, but they play a role. Ukraine also operates a fleet of naval drones, which Kyiv has relied on to harm Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Anker's Eufy 3-in-1 E20 robot vacuum is $150 off right now, as part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. That brings the price down to $400, which is a record low. For those averse to using Amazon, the deal is also available directly from the company.

The E20 made our list of the best robot vacuums, and with good reason. We loved the hybrid functionality, as this robovac quickly transforms into a cordless stick vacuum and a handheld unit. This in no way impedes the overall performance, as we found the automatic cleaning mode to be top-tier.

The self-emptying base also holds a lot, considering its compact size. We praised the proprietary app in our official review, as editing room maps is both quick and easy. All told, it only took the robovac ten minutes to scoot around the house and create an accurate map. 

The suction power of the robotic unit is strong enough for major cleaning tasks, but the same cannot be said of the stick vacuum attachment. The power is on the weaker side. Also, it doesn’t come with a wall mount for the stick vacuum. That costs extra, to the tune of around $30. Today’s savings more than makes up for that.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly robot vacuum that can handle both vacuuming and mopping, iRobot’s Roomba Combo Essential just hit its lowest price ever. Thanks to the Amazon Spring Sale, it’s down to $149 from $275, matching the lowest price we’ve seen. It previously dipped to $149 during the holiday season and earlier this year, but it’s unclear how long this deal will stick around this time.

As you can see in our roundup of the best budget robot vacuums, we’ve consistently rated iRobot’s machines highly for their reliability and ease of use. The Roomba Combo Essential is a simple, no-frills option that both vacuums and mops, making it a solid pick for small apartments, dorm rooms or anyone who wants a cleaner floor without spending a fortune.

The vacuum uses special multi-surface brushes to pick up dirt, dust and pet hair from hard floors and carpets. Unlike some budget models that struggle with transitions, this one automatically adjusts to different surfaces, so you won’t have to worry about it getting stuck. When it’s time to mop, the built-in mopping pad wipes down hard floors, tackling light spills and everyday messes. It’s not as advanced as iRobot’s higher-end models with precision scrubbing, but it’s a convenient way to keep your floors looking fresh with minimal effort.

One of iRobot Roomba Combo Essential's most convenient features is its auto-adjusting cleaning power — the robot increases suction when it detects extra debris, so it’s more effective on high-traffic areas like entryways or around pet bowls. It also has cliff sensors to prevent it from tumbling down stairs and a low-profile design that helps it slip under some couches and other furniture for a more thorough clean.

Despite it being an entry-level robot vacuum, the iRobot Roomba Combo Essential comes with app control and voice assistant support, so you can set cleaning schedules and initiate cleaning whether you’re at home lounging on the couch or away on vacation. For $150, this is a solid deal for an iRobot machine that can vacuum and mop, especially considering its usual $275 price tag. If you’ve been thinking about automating some of your floor cleaning, this is one of the most affordable ways to do it.

• Russia's invasion has turned Ukraine into the most heavily mined country in the world.
• Ukraine's deminers are tasked with cleaning up the deadly mess, which will take years.
• To help them do this safely, deminers use a small robot and other tools.

BILA TSERKVA, Ukraine — For the demining crews of Ukraine's State Emergency Services, removing Russian explosives is a dangerous game.

These individuals are tasked with cleaning up land mines, fallen missiles, and other unexploded ordnance from fields and villages across the Ukrainian countryside. Their work must be done cautiously, as one wrong move could prove fatal.

But even when the Russian bombs stop falling one day, the work will continue for years to come.

Ukraine is now the most heavily mined country in the world, with up to 23% of its territory potentially contaminated with land mines and unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations Development Programme. Some other estimates say this figure is even higher; clearing such a mess will cost tens of billions of dollars.

To help clean up land mines and minimize the risk to humans, the State Emergency Service relies on a collection of drones and robots to spot and then remove the buried explosives. Business Insider recently met with two members of a 72-person demining unit that operates these tools to see how they work.

At a mine-clearing site south of Kyiv, the deminers explained to BI how they remove mines from the ground. One of the safest ways they do this is with the help of a small, remote-controlled robot resembling the character "WALL-E" from the animated film of the same name.

The robot can only clear anti-personnel mines like POM-3 or PFM-1 that are designed to be used against people and not anti-tank mines, which are more sensitive to heavier objects like vehicles. The Ukrainian mine-clearing unit does operate larger, remote-controlled vehicles that can tackle anti-tank mines.

The robot, which Ukraine got from Poland, is about the size of a carry-on suitcase, and it's controlled by a tablet-like device that shows the situation through a camera.

Volodymyr and Ivan, the two Ukrainian deminers, showed BI the robot in action.

Every move is slow and methodical and requires precision maneuvering by the operator, similar to an arcade claw machine. It has little plastic treads and can seamlessly transition from road to grass like a tank, though obviously a fraction of the size.

When the Ukrainian deminers arrive at a contaminated site, they size up the situation and decide which tool to use. They can either blow up the mines on the spot or use the robots to remove them with their claws and then detonate them later or disable the threat.

The unit prefers to work during the day since it is easier to spot threats on the ground. They work five days a week all around the Kyiv region and spend the other two days back at the base waiting for a call to clean up some potentially deadly mess.

The Ukrainian deminers told BI that they will be cleaning up mines for a very long time. But robots like this one make the job just a little easier — and a lot safer.

The small robot is part of a family of tools that Ukrainian deminers use to remove mines from the battlefield and civilian areas.

The unit has the larger ones to clear anti-tank mines and aerial drones to map out contaminated areas. And there's always the more old-school method of waving handheld detectors, but that carries much more risk.

Drones and robots have become an increasingly common presence in the Ukraine war, with both sides using small, remote-controlled vehicles and aircraft for both lethal and nonlethal tasks.

The Amazon Big Spring sale may not be as huge as the company's Prime Day events — but it lasted longer. Now on the final day, we're continuing to track the best robot vacuum deals. Of course, the big news in robot vacuums right now is iRobot’s announcement that it’s not confident in its ability to continue operating. That’s surprising considering the Roomba’s dominance in the automated floor-bot market, with top picks in our budget and standard robo vac buying guides. Fortunately, a number of other brands make great vacs — and Roomba’s are still available. We also found deals on a few of our recommended cordless stick vacs, which make great spot-cleaners to supplement the bots' automated runs.

The best Amazon Spring Sale robot vacuum deals

• Shark's Matrix Plus robovac for $400 ($350 off): In our testing, we’ve been consistently impressed with Shark vacuums — but they’re not cheap. This machine can mop in addition to vacuum and is nearly half price at 47 percent off.

• Anker Eufy Robot Vacuum 11S MAX for $140 (44 percent off): The “S” in the model name stands for “slim” and it was one of the more low-profile machines we tried. It’s a pick in our guide to budget robot vacuums and has a long battery life and good suction power for its price. The main drawback is the lack of Wi-Fi, so instead of programming it with your phone, you’ll use the included remote.

• Anker Eufy Robot Vacuum 3-in-1 E20 for $400 ($200 off): If you can’t decide between a robot vacuum or a lightweight stick vac, you don’t have to. The new Eufy E20 combines a robo vac, cordless upright and handheld vacuum in one machine. Plus the automatically emptying base holds a lot of debris for its size. While we found the robot performance to be better than the stick vac suction, it’s still impressive and convenient for an all-in-one model.

• Shark PowerDetect cordless stick vacuum for $299 ($130 off): This is a variant of the runner-up pick in our guide to cordless vacuums. It lacks the auto-empty base of the model we tested, but it’s the same basic machine, which we found to have excellent suction power, plus a bright light and an articulating arm that helps suck up dirt in harder-to-reach places.

The best cordless vacuum deals

• Levoit Cordless Vacuum Cleaner (LVAC-200) for $150 ($50 off): The lowest price we’ve tracked on this stick vac is $130 but this matches the lowest price we’ve seen this year. It’s our runner up budget pick for a stick vac in our guide. It doesn’t have a storage base and the bin is smallish, but it’s lightweight and super affordable. It also disassembles easily for storage making its lack of base less of a deal breaker.

• Tineco Pure ONE Station 5 for $349 ($110 off): This vac earned an honorable mention in our tests. The self-emptying base is a big selling point. We also liked the auto-adjusting suction and single-button start feature. The fact that it doesn’t require proprietary bags helps keep down the long-term cost, too.

•  Tineco Pure ONE S11 cordless vacuum for $200 ($100 off with coupon): Click the coupon to get $95 off our top pick for a budget stick vac. We like that it automatically adjusts suction depending on what it's picking up and is relatively lightweight when you’re pushing it around your floors. The bin is on the small side and the battery life isn’t as good as on other models, but it’s an easy-to-use, no-frills way to clean floors.

• Tineco Pure ONE Station FurFree for $400 ($300 off): Of all the stick vacs our reviewer tried for our guide, this is the one she wanted to use the most. It’s super convenient with a dock that charges and empties and cleans all parts of the machine — brush, tube and dustbin — after each use. Plus the suction power is great and the iLoop smart sensor kicks up the suction when needed.

New studies from OpenAI and MIT Media Lab found that, generally, the more time users spend talking to ChatGPT, the lonelier they feel. The connection was made as part of two, yet-to-be-peer-reviewed studies, one done at OpenAI analyzing "over 40 million ChatGPT interactions" and targeted user surveys, and another at MIT Media Lab following participants' ChatGPT use for four weeks.

MIT's study identified several ways talking to ChatGPT — whether through text or voice — can affect a person's emotional experience, beyond the general finding that higher use led to "heightened loneliness and reduced socialization." For example, participants who already trusted the chatbot and tended to get emotionally attached in human relationships felt lonelier and more emotionally dependent on ChatGPT during the study. Those effects were less severe with ChatGPT's voice mode, though, particularly if ChatGPT spoke in a neutral tone. Discussing personal topics also tended to lead to loneliness in the short-term, and interestingly, speaking to ChatGPT about more general topics was more likely to increase emotional dependence.

The big finding from OpenAI's study was that having emotional conversations with ChatGPT is still not common. "Emotionally expressive interactions were present in a large percentage of usage for only a small group of the heavy Advanced Voice Mode users we studied," OpenAI writes. That suggests that even if MIT's findings are as concerning as they are unsurprising, they're not exactly widespread outside a small group of power users. 

There are important limitations to MIT Media Lab and OpenAI's research, like both studies covering a short period of time (one month for MIT, 28 days for OpenAI) and MIT not having a control group to compare to. The studies do add more evidence to something that seemed intuitively true for a while now — talking to AI has a psychological impact on the humans doing the talking. Given the intense interest in making AI a compelling conversation partner, whether its in video games or as a way to simplify the job of YouTube creators, its clear that MIT Media Lab and OpenAI are right to want to understand what'll happen when talking to AI is the norm.