Apparently, a fair amount of talk at this week’s European service robot gathering, Innorobo, concerned whether or not a Jetson’s Rosie or a Forbidden Planet-like Robby companion robot is a dream worth pursuing or even possible in the foreseeable future, prompting the above headline to appear atop a BBC article about the event.

True, the technological challenges might seem daunting, and the field of AI has historically been rife with disappointments and false starts. But two unrelated technologies have emerged recently, which could make multitask-capable service robots with appealing personalities happen faster than many suspect.