MIT Tech Review: The Hidden Human Labor Powering Humanoid Robots

Humanoid Robots Are Overstating Their Autonomy

A February 23, 2026 investigation by MIT Technology Review found that humanoid robot companies are significantly overstating the autonomy of their machines, concealing the extensive human labor required to make them appear capable.

Three Forms of Hidden Human Labor

Data Collection: One delivery company had workers wear motion-tracking sensors while moving boxes; the data was used to train robots. Building humanoids at scale will likely require large numbers of manual laborers to act as data collectors—a cost rarely disclosed in demos.

Teleoperation: Despite the end goal of full autonomy, robotics companies employ people to remotely operate their robots. The startup 1X's Neo—a $20,000 humanoid designed for homes—is launching this year, but its founder has not committed to any specific level of autonomy.

Labor Arbitrage: If home humanoids are not genuinely autonomous, the arrangement is better understood as wage arbitrage. It would create a system where physical tasks can be performed wherever labor is cheapest—a "physical gig economy."

The Danger of Opacity

Early AI saw crowdsourcing platforms marketed as automated services when humans performed most of the work. The review warns that a repeat in robotics could simultaneously deepen public misconceptions about technological capability and enable labor exploitation at scale.

Source: MIT Technology Review — The human work behind humanoid robots is being hidden