Robots Don't Have to Be Creepy. Meet the Dancer Reimagining Them. | Catie Cuan (Founder & CEO, ART Lab)

May 5, 2026

Catie Cuan, a dancer-turned-roboticist and founder & CEO of ART Lab, reimagines how robots fit into human life. She discusses why capable machines can still feel unsettling. Short takes on non-humanoid designs, robots in homes and care, robots that read human reactions, on-device learning, and how art and dance shape better interaction.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

Build Product First To Collect Real Data

Vertically integrate model development with a deployable product to collect realistic interaction data.
ART Lab builds a home device and runs local on-device models so images and text stay private while gathering usage data.

Embodied AI Replaces The Hunched Phone Posture

Embodied interfaces can reduce screen hunch and broaden awareness compared with phones.
Catie wants AI access via voice, gesture, and movement so computing becomes diffuse and more bodily instead of confined to a handheld surface.

Humanoid Shape Raises Expectations

Humanoid form raises expectations and uncanny-valley risks, so form should match application.
Catie cites Rodney Brooks: nearer human form triggers higher expectations for physical and cognitive ability, which can backfire.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Catie Cuan's dad was in the hospital, surrounded by machines that were supposed to help him. Instead they made him feel alienated and afraid. Catie, a dancer-turned-roboticist, realized it's not enough for a machine to do its job — it has to be relatable, too. Today she's the founder and CEO of ART Lab, focused on what she calls the "interaction gap" between what a robot can do and how it makes us feel.

Catie danced at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and ran her own dance company before getting her PhD at Stanford and becoming an artist-in-residence at Google X, where she worked on the Everyday Robots moonshot — including teaching office robots that it's rude to cut between two people having a conversation. Now ART Lab is building a home robot that won't look anything like a robot, plus a new kind of AI model that conditions success on how the human in the room responds, not just whether the task got done.

Listen for the case against humanoids, why the future of AI shouldn't live inside your phone, and a sneak peek at what our life with robots might look like.

Chapters:

(02:11) - “There will be billions of robots” – from dishwashers to elder care
(04:45) - Why robots can be capable and still feel unsettling
(08:00) - How robots could read your reactions and respond in real time
(11:45) - What shape should robots take?
(15:30) - The case against humanoids
(19:00) - A nine foot robot hand and the wild future robot design could take
(23:15) - What it's like to dance with robots
(28:30) - “The robot just died” – when a live failure changed the whole performance
(32:45) - Friendship loneliness and home robots (and why builders need to be clear about the future they are creating)
(37:11) - Why the home may become robotics’ biggest use case (and what ART Lab is building)
(40:06) - Robot tutors, homework help, and why teachers still matter most
(43:51) - “We have a tremendous amount of agency” – choosing the future we build now
(46:16) - Why inequality and access worry Catie most (and who gets left behind)
(48:56) - Why builders need to get outside their own bubble

Support Future Around & Find Out

Follow Dan on LinkedIn
Get the free newsletter
Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!