Technologies

This Lip-Syncing Robot Face Could Help Future Bots Talk Like Us

If we’re going to live and work with humanoid robots, maybe they should talk like humans, too.

The slight unease that creeps up your spine when you see something that acts human but isn’t remains a big issue in robotics — especially for robots built to look and speak like us.

That peculiar feeling is called the uncanny valley. One way roboticists work to bridge that valley is by matching a robot’s lip movements with its voice. On Wednesday, Columbia University announced research that delves into how a new wave of robot faces can speak more realistically.

Hod Lipson, a Columbia engineering professor who worked on the research, told CNET that a main reason why robots are “uncanny” is they don’t move their lips like us when they talk. “We are aiming to solve this problem, which has been neglected in robotics,” Lipson said.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

This research comes as hype has been spiking around robots designed for use at home and work. At CES 2026 last week, for instance, CNET saw a range of robots designed to interact with people. Everything from the latest Boston Dynamics Atlas robot to household robots like those that fold laundry, and even a turtle-shaped bot designed for environmental research, made appearances at the world’s biggest tech show. If CES is any indication, 2026 could be a big year for consumer robotics.

Central among those are humanoid robots that come with bodies, faces and synthetic skin that mimics our own. The CES cohort included human-looking robots from Realbotix that could work information booths or provide comfort to humans, as well as a robot from Lovense designed for relationships that’s outfitted with AI to “remember” intimate conversations.

But a split-second mismatch between lip movement and speech can mean the difference between a machine that you can form an emotional attachment to and one that’s little more than an unsettling animatronic.

So if people are going to accept humanoid robots “living” among us in everyday life, it’s probably better if they don’t make us mildly uncomfortable whenever they talk.

Lip-syncing robots

To make robots with human faces that speak like us, the robot’s lips must be carefully synced to the audio of its speech. The Columbia research team developed a technique that helps robot mouths move like ours do by focusing on how language sounds.

First, the team built a humanoid robot face with a mouth that can talk — and sing — in a way that reduces the uncanny valley effect. The robot face, made with silicone skin, has magnet connectors for complex lip movements. This enables the face to form lip shapes that cover 24 consonants and 16 vowels.

To match the lip movements with speech, they designed a “learning pipeline” to collect visual data from lip movements. An AI model uses this data for training, then generates reference points for motor commands. Next, a “facial action transformer” turns the motor commands into mouth motions that synchronize with audio.

Using this framework, the robot face, called Emo, was able to “speak” in multiple languages, including languages that weren’t part of the training, such as French, Chinese and Arabic. The trick is that the framework analyzes the sounds of language, not the meaning behind the sound.

“We avoided the language-specific problem by training a model that goes directly from audio to lip motion,” Lipson said. “There is no notion of language.”

Why does a robot even need a face and lips?

Humans have been working alongside robots for a long time but they have always looked like machines, not people — the disembodied and very mechanical-looking arms on assembly lines or the chunky disc that is a robot vacuum scooting around our kitchen floors.

However, as the AI language models behind chatbots have become more prevalent, tech companies are working hard to teach robots how to communicate with us using language in real time.

There’s a whole field of study called human-robot interaction that examines how robots should coexist with humans, physically and socially. In 2024, a study out of Berlin that used 157 participants found that a robot’s ability to express empathy and emotion through verbal communication is critical for interacting effectively with humans. And another 2024 study from Italy found that active speech was important for collaboration between humans and robots when working on complex tasks like assembly.

If we’re going to rely on robots at home and at work, we need to be able to converse with them like we do with each other. In the future, Lipson says, research with lip-syncing robots would be useful for any kind of humanoid robot that needs to interact with people.

It’s also easy to imagine a future where humanoid robots are identical to us. Lipson says careful design could ensure that people understand they’re talking to a robot, not a person. One example would be requiring humanoid robots to have blue skin, Lipson says, “so that they cannot be mistaken for a human.”

Technologies

Trump Maintains US‑Iran Negotiations Continue Amid Tehran’s Denials of Duplicity

President Trump insists that US‑Iran talks are ongoing despite Tehran’s denial of any negotiation plans, while warning that only a deal or total surrender will allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Conflicting statements from both sides have heightened uncertainty as the conflict enters its sixth month.

On Monday, President Donald Trump asserted that negotiations between the United States and Iran are still taking place, even after Tehran stated it has no intention of engaging in direct talks with Washington.

In a fiery Truth Social post, Trump labeled Iran’s leaders “unbelievably duplicitous,” claiming they are lying about ongoing peace talks “whether Iran wants to admit it or not.” He repeated his assertion that the United States completely controls the Strait of Hormuz, despite maritime traffic through the crucial route lingering at only a small fraction of pre‑conflict levels.

He wrote, “Nothing reaches Iran unless we allow it, and nothing will pass unless a deal—or total surrender—is achieved.”

Earlier that day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters there is no imminent plan for U.S.–Iran negotiations, contradicting Trump’s earlier comment that talks would resume Monday afternoon. Baghaei added that Iran’s only current discussions are with Oman concerning the Strait of Hormuz.

The conflicting statements have heightened uncertainty over the peace‑talk process and the broader conflict, now in its sixth month.

Trump’s assertion about new negotiations came a day after he said on Truth Social that he had agreed to cancel a massive strike against Iran “subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.” He said in the same post that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to hold off on that attack because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

Trump has claimed dozens of times throughout the more‑than‑five‑month‑long war that a deal is at hand. No permanent deal has been signed, and a temporary ceasefire reached in June has fallen apart.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to launch devastating strikes against Iran before backing off. After the latest example, oil prices on Monday fell and stocks surged.

BMI, a research unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note Monday that a broader diplomatic understanding on reopening the Strait of Hormuz is still achievable this quarter, while raising the probability of its escalation scenario to 35% from 25%, citing mounting military, diplomatic and economic signs of rising U.S.-Iran tensions.

“Diplomatic progress is likely to be punctuated by periodic military flare-ups, while miscalculation by either side could trigger a renewed escalation,” BMI analysts wrote in a note. The firm said the key issue to watch is the future governance of the strait, as the Iran-Oman talks — potentially backed by Gulf states, China and the U.S. — point to efforts to build a post-conflict shipping framework.

Shipping risks persist even as diplomacy appears to be advancing. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said it received a report of an incident 20 nautical miles (23 miles) northeast of Khasab, Oman — at the mouth of the strait — with a tanker’s master reporting an explosion in close proximity to the vessel at about 20:37 UTC Sunday (4:37 pm ET). The vessel and crew were safe and authorities are investigating, UKMTO said, advising ships to transit with caution.

The proposal Trump announced over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue ironing out some of the thorny issues that had derailed diplomatic efforts, according to The Associated Press, citing a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

The official said the proposal also includes a reopening of the Hormuz Strait and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.

The U.S., for its part, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil, the official said, adding that no deal has been reached, although the mediation efforts remained underway.

Trump’s weekend reversal has lowered the temperature after days of escalating attacks across the Gulf. Kuwait said Saturday that Iranian forces launched a wave of drones within its airspace, with its military destroying multiple aircraft after Iran targeted critical infrastructure in the country’s north.

A parallel track with Muscat is also advancing. Iranian diplomats said Tehran was close to reaching a new arrangement with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a deal critical to preventing the war from escalating further, according to the Financial Times.

Iranian officials said negotiations over future management of the Hormuz Strait with Oman, which sits on the opposite shore of the waterway, are in their final stages. The agreed shipping route would be different from those used before, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Baghaei, adding that the new route was separate from the issue of the strait’s reopening or continued closure.

Technologies

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Halts Planned Iran Strike

Oil prices dropped after Trump cancelled a planned strike on Iran, with WTI down about 5% and Brent near 5% lower. He said the move followed requests from Tehran and regional allies for a pause while a deal shaping the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program is negotiated.

Oil prices fell on Monday after President Donald Trump announced he had cancelled a planned strike on Iran. WTI futures dropped roughly 5% to $80.34 a barrel, while Brent slipped about 4.7% to $83.77 a barrel.

Trump said early Sunday he called off the strike after Iran and several Middle Eastern nations asked him to hold off, noting that the outlines of a deal had been agreed upon. He added that the prospective accord would entail the immediate, full opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to his Truth Social post.

The president had been considering another round of strikes as diplomatic hopes waned since the conflict began on February 28. He said the U.S. and Iran would meet for talks on Monday, but Iran denied any scheduled negotiations with Washington, citing PressTV. Iran’s foreign‑ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei clarified that Tehran was only discussing shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman. In a follow‑up Truth Social message, Trump insisted that, regardless of Iran’s acknowledgment, the United States is indeed discussing a solution to a long‑standing problem created by Iran.

Technologies

Oil Prices Drop as Trump Cancels Planned Attack on Iran

Oil prices fell sharply after President Trump announced the cancellation of a planned strike on Iran, citing a new deal that would open the Hormuz Strait and end Iran’s nuclear threat.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump announced that he had called off a planned strike on Iran.

West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, slipped roughly 5% to close at $80.34 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 4.7% to settle at $83.77 a barrel.

Trump made the announcement early Sunday, saying he had canceled the strike following requests from Tehran and other Middle Eastern countries.

In a Truth Social post, he wrote: “We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

The president indicated that the proposed agreement would include the immediate, complete, and total opening of the Hormuz Strait, as well as an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.

Trump had been weighing additional strikes amid diminishing prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict that began on Feb. 28. He stated that the U.S. and Iran would hold negotiations on Monday.

Tehran denied that talks were planned with Washington, according to state news outlet PressTV.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was only holding talks with Oman regarding the routes ships can use through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump added that whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused for decades.”