UBTech's U1 humanoid companion robot arrives with 88 joints, realistic skin, and a CEO insisting it's definitely not a sex robot.

Chinese robotics firm UBTech has unveiled the U1, a humanoid companion robot offered in male and female forms, complete with realistic skin, hair, and affective AI designed to read and simulate human emotion. The company's CEO was at pains to distinguish it from a sex robot, which raises the obvious question of what, precisely, a robot built for emotional intimacy and physical realism is supposed to be. The U1 can navigate flat surfaces and move its 88 joints, though walking remains beyond it for now.The companion robot category keeps expanding its ambitions faster than its engineering, and the U1 is a useful case study in that gap.