Looks like scientists are working towards phase 1 nanobots. Robots on a chip. Robots small enough to be the size of fleas.
The intention is to mass produce them and program them for a multitude of different tasks such as surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine and cleaning. All tasks that they would be suitable for.
The good bit about micromanufacturing is that they can produce smaller robots which will be able to work at even smaller scales. It looks like this is going to be our entry into many labour and life saving devices.
I only hope that they remember all the sci-fi books, like the late Michael Critchon’s Prey, where nanobots end up escaping and destroying things. They should make sure that their capabilities are simple, one action only and not multitasking. They should not be able to replicate themselves, they should have a very limited lifespan and they should never be aware and able to adapt their programming. You should be able to buy them for specific functions, such as killing weeds, they are inert until you open the packet and then they get to work on the weeds and after a month or something they just stop.
Simple, easy and minimum risk.
Imagine if someone like Gort could dematerialize into flea-sized mni-robots.
Someone like Gort? You are aware that it was a man in a costume and the rest was special effects?
That made it easy for that very same thing to happen in the remake.