Sam Altman says the world isn't ready for the 'humanoid robots moment' — and that it's not far away

Business Insider

21-05-2025

Sam Altman has said that, while people worry about AI replacing white-collar jobs, something else will catch them off guard.
In a Bloomberg interview that aired Tuesday, the OpenAI CEO said that "the world isn't ready for" humanoid robots walking down the street.
"I don't think the world has really had the humanoid robots moment yet," he said.
He said people could soon be walking down the street and seeing "like seven robots that walk past you doing things or whatever. It's gonna feel very sci-fi."
And he said that moment isn't "very far away."
"I don't think that's very far away from like a visceral, like, 'Oh man, this is gonna do a lot of things that people used to do,'" he said.
He said this prospect was a marked contrast to people who have "maybe abstractly thought" of AI betting at specific tasks like programming and customer support.
In February, OpenAI signed a deal with Figure AI, a startup developing humanoid robots designed to "help in everyday life." Figure said its robot, Figure-01, is built for manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail jobs.
"AI is, for sure, going to change a lot of jobs, totally take some jobs away, create a bunch of new ones," Altman told Bloomberg.
He said OpenAI has "always tried to be super honest about what we think the impact may be, realizing that we'll be wrong on a lot of details."
"I think I am way too self-aware of my own limitations to sit here and try to say I can, like, tell you what's on the other side of that wormhole," he added.