This 22-Year-Old Built TikTok for Mobile Games, and It’s Growing Fast | E2276

Summary

This episode of This Week in Startups features two interviews. First, the young co-founders of Nanogram demo their 'TikTok for mobile games' app, which uses AI to let users create and scroll through casual games. Second, the CEO of 1X Technologies discusses their humanoid robot Neo, designed for home assistance, covering its AI world model, safety, manufacturing, and societal potential. Both segments highlight emerging trends in AI-driven content creation and embodied AI.

• Nanogram is a mobile app that lets users create and scroll through AI-generated casual games in a TikTok-like feed.
• The app uses Google Gemini for AI game generation and has 100k users, with power users playing 25+ games per session.
• Business model experiments include interactive ads for brands and a potential creator currency, similar to Roblox.
• 1X Technologies is developing Neo, a 66-pound humanoid robot designed for household tasks like laundry and tidying.
• Neo uses a 'world model' for general intelligence and is trained to understand social context and physical dynamics.
• The robot is priced at $20,000 or $500/month, with plans to start shipping in 2026 after further testing and refinement.
• 1X employs vertical integration, developing everything from materials to AI in-house to control costs and accelerate iteration.
• The CEO envisions humanoid robots eventually helping in labs and infrastructure, accelerating scientific and economic progress.