Oliver Conway

Smashing the wine glass seems to have been a bad fluke, as the grip pad on its mitten-like hand wasn't right.

And actually, those robot mitten hands are part of the key to the company's success, as co-founder Tony Chow explains.

Sunday AI is of course paying these people to carry out hours of repetitive tasks to train the robot, a reminder of the human drudgery that often underpins AI.

It's not just in the US where people are getting excited about human-like robots.

The humanoid robot industry in China is so hot that the government there recently warned a bubble might be building set to burst.

Outside of the tech bubble, some, including the International Federation of Robotics, think it could take 20 years before domestic bots become truly useful and accepted.

Making your coffee now.

But AI robotics companies are convinced that things are moving fast, and eventually we'll all want one of their bots in our homes.

Our cyber correspondent, Joe Tidy.

And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon.

This edition was mixed by Chris Lovelock and produced by Stephanie Zachrisson.

Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway.

Until next time, goodbye.

Start off your 2026 with a brilliant podcast box set from the BBC World Service.

First, they told the story of the moon landing.

Then came the dramatic rescue of the Apollo 13 mission.

Now from the BBC World Service, 13 Minutes presents The Space Shuttle, the inside story of a dream to revolutionize spaceflight.

We had so much riding on something we'd never done before.

Roger all.

13 Minutes presents The Space Shuttle.