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Moonshots · 3 min · Jan 20, 2026

Household robots could become practical around 2026 or 2027

Ray Kurzweil says robots still struggle with ordinary cleanup but expects practical robotics in 2026–27. He sees a large opening for founders applying AI to untouched sectors.

RK

Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist.

  • Peter Diamandis, Host · Founder & executive chairman, XPRIZE Foundation

    Co-founded Singularity University and founded Zero-G; co-wrote the books Abundance and Bold.

  • Salim Ismail, Host · Founder, OpenExO

    Co-wrote Exponential Organizations; was Singularity University's founding executive director; sold Ångströ to Google.

  • Dave Blundin, Host · Founder & GP, Link Ventures

    Has co-founded 23 companies; founding CEO of Vestmark and chairman of insurance marketplace EverQuote.

  • Alexander Wissner-Gross, Host · Computer Scientist & Founder, Reified

    Has backed and advised 40+ tech companies, directly and through 021T Capital and Reified; writes The Innermost Loop.

About this segment

Ray Kurzweil says robots still struggle with ordinary cleanup but expects practical robotics in 2026–27. He sees a large opening for founders applying AI to untouched sectors.

From “The Singularity Countdown: AGI by 2029, Humans Merge with AI, Intelligence 1000x | Ray Kurzweil”, Jan 20, 2026. Watch the full episode

Answers “What will AI look like in the next few years?” See all 70 answers

Answers “When will humanoid robots be useful?” See all 7 answers

“I think that's going to begin to take place in 2026, 2027.”
RKRay Kurzweilat 1:29:41 · Moonshots1:29:41

Takeaways

  1. Robots can dance but still struggle with everyday cleanup.
  2. Kurzweil expects useful robotics to emerge in 2026–27.
  3. He sees room for startups applying AI across industries.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 36:17Kurzweil expects longevity escape velocity by 20325:35
  2. 12:52AGI means expertise across fields, not a Turing test4:19
  3. 33:01Kurzweil expects interviewable personal avatars this year3:38

  4. 1:29:05Household robots could become practical around 2026 or 20273:09

  5. 1:11:40Kurzweil expects universal basic income in the 2030s2:49Up next
  6. 22:17AI consciousness has no scientific test, but behavior may settle it7:06
  7. 46:47Kurzweil puts staying alive ahead of cryonics4:41

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 1:29:18

    Salim, do you want to jump in? Ray, when you look at what's coming over the next, say, year, is there anything that you're incredibly excited about? because one of the things I've heard you talk about is the intersection between these, right? You intersect synthetic biology or neuroscience with AI and computing and all sorts of new fields get instigated at that. What is most exciting to you and what are you anticipating most excitedly in the next, say, year or two?

  2. 1:29:43

    Well, robotics has actually not really been something that has affected us very much. I think that's going to begin to take place in 2026, 2027. But you look at robots, I mean, they can do certain things like do a very fast dance, but they really have not been practical. Like if you actually eat a meal and leave your dishes, there's no robot that can actually pick it up and actually clean that up the way a human being can do that.

  3. 1:30:28

    that's going to happen over the next couple of years. So that's one area that has been behind. And I think there's going to be a lot of debate on that. Large language models are pretty fantastic, but we've got to bring that to the real world of actually being able to handle physical things using robots. Salim, you had some questions, I think, on society that were important. Yeah, you know, if you were advising a 25-year-old today, how would you set about giving them a sense of how to manage their life in this radical uncertainty?

  4. 1:31:12

    How would you kind of tell them what mindsets should they have, et cetera? What advice would you give to a 25-year-old today? My son, Ethan, is involved with venture capital, and most of, well, all of his investments are in AI and actually bringing the practice of AI to all kinds of things that haven't been done yet. And there's a tremendous number of opportunities of applying AI to all kinds of things that we do and creating businesses that would be effective.

  5. 1:31:48

    So I think the opportunities to create a new business and do things that have not been done before is actually higher than it's ever been before. And you can do it very quickly.