This Video Of Slow Motion Robots Putting Olive Oil In A Bag Is Really Amazing

Humanoid, a UK-based robotics company, may have just created the most slow-motion, mind-bending video of autonomous robots performing mundane tasks since the current era of humanoid robot hype began. And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it is a good example of the real capabilities and limitations of these devices when they perform tasks automatically.

Yes, some non-professional viewers may mistake this video for one of David Lynch’s Y2K-era experiments in slow motion, but there’s a reason that mobile robots shuffle and move things like they’re recovering from surgery: they develop these movements, not teleport or rely on a pre-programmed and downloaded routine.

In this video, just released today, Humanoid shows off a concept system it calls KinetIQ, a combination of interconnected pieces of AI software and robotic hardware, which aims, in theory, to coordinate and perform complex tasks throughout the home and industry. “Each layer treats the layer below as a set of tools, organizing them by motivating and using the tool to achieve goals set from above,” according to an explanatory statement from Humanoid.

If you watch the first part of this video and all you see is a robot in the kitchen doing literally nothing, you are actually meant to see a robot as one thing in a large business, relaying the verbal instructions it receives from a human to its colleagues, shop robots on wheels.

And if you just see the wheeled robots that take forever to put one (1) packet of cocoa powder and one (1) bottle of oil into a paper bag, you’re lying on top of that those robots are out of the way, thinking—second by millisecond—how to get that breakable glass bottle out of that breakable bag.

And if you see a boy holding a bag, you say, “Well, why didn’t he just go to the shelves and take the powder and oil off the shelf himself?” you’re missing the fact that these robots are considered safe enough that Humanoid’s lawyers are fine when they show someone standing next to them during a demo where they don’t work.
Combined, it’s nothing. In fact, if you squint, it’s a real success.

But it should also give you pause when it comes to big promises from tech leaders about companies like Hyundai and Tesla revitalizing industries by populating them with highly capable humanoid robots. This is an unproven technology, and technology companies are increasingly concerned about that.

So if you’re watching a video in 2026 where robots prance, twerk, or make cocktails, what you’re seeing is little more than a sizzle reel, designed to evoke awe and little else. Or he lost the fine print when he said he was actually looking at a human-controlled robot.

If, on the other hand, you see the robot moving, fidgeting, and struggling to turn on the dishwasher, pay attention. That boring video might tell you something about where this technology is right now.