My Musings: Is The Robot Era arriving too early?
By Femi Greaterheights Akinyomi.
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Is the robot era arriving too early? And why shouldn’t it be? I’ve been musing a lot about this, especially with how fast things are moving. We’ve gone from an agile approach to an AI approach, and now, it feels like we’re on the cusp of an AGI approach. See what I did there? AgIle (A and I in agile), AGI (first three letters in agile). It’s almost like the universe is playing a word game with us, hinting at the inevitable.
The rapid development of AI makes me think humanity will arrive at Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) before 2030. Experts like OpenAI’s Sam Altman even suggest AGI could be here as early as 2025, while Anthropic’s Dario Amodei predicts 2026, calling it “a country of geniuses in a data center.” Elon Musk also anticipates an AI smarter than the smartest humans by 2026. The Metaculus community’s AGI forecast for a 50% likelihood shifted from 2041 to 2031 in just one year, showing how fast expectations are accelerating.
These are the components, alongside quantum computing at a commercial level, that will be the major drivers of the robot era. This is the era where humans will either rely absolutely on machines or be augmented with them, cyborg-style. AI beyond just Nvidia chips, AI will accelerate faster in the quantum era. The Quantum Technology industry is seeing a pivotal shift, moving from merely growing quantum bits (qubits) to stabilizing them, signaling readiness for mission-critical industries. This industry is projected for substantial growth, with revenue expected to surge from $4 billion in 2024 to as much as $72 billion by 2035. Quantum computing at a minimal level means that the hardware of the future (consumer tech mostly) just needs minimal parts to function. If you’re late to the AI race, you can still get ahead with robots or quantum or any other hardware that follows. Besides, if you missed leading the “brain age” (AI being the core brain), you still have the chance to catch up with the “body race” (hardware).
The era of fierce tech competition is truly upon us. Intel is laying off workers, Microsoft is doing the same, Amazon is doing the same, Google is doing the same. What are they all doing? They do not want the old wine in the new skin. As a company relying on profits to succeed, if it means laying off humans to optimize performance using AI, won’t you take it? If your competitors are doing it and making headway, won’t you damn the odds and trash out the emotions of building people and move in the direction of the new world order? Intel could have been the one doing what Nvidia is doing today, but Nvidia dominates the AI accelerator market with approximately 80% share, while Intel is currently at 0%. Intel is now restructuring, planning to slash 15% of its workforce to free up capital for high-growth areas like AI.
This isn’t just a blip; AI-driven automation contributed to an 80% rise in tech layoffs in 2025, with over 74,000 jobs cut early in the year. Companies like Meta are explicitly saying they’re laying off to “invest in long-term, ambitious visions around AI.” Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, even predicts that up to 50% of current entry-level office roles could be eliminated within the next five years due to automation. This means getting a high-level degree might not be required to be relevant. If AI keeps replacing some not just blue-collar but now white-collar jobs, education will take a different path. More than 60% of the attractive courses today might not be necessary. Maybe humans will now value art, singing and music, spending time with family, poetry, etc. The drive to be a genius may be subjective, as what makes us geniuses will be adjudicated to machines. Being super intelligent would be 1 in a billion. It won’t be what makes you smarter than other humans to get a job done. It would be what makes you better than the machines we have. Imagine HR asking you, “So why are you qualified for the role since we already have ‘your type’ in our lab?” Damn. That’s cold.
The competition is why technology we expect within decades is coming way too early. The early bird gets the worm, right? And humans have really embraced AI; the same humans who fought the telephone and internet just some years back, looking at it like witchcraft. With this new embrace of everything AI, we as humans are likely to embrace the robot era. This doesn’t mean it won’t be called antichrist or the end of human civilization by the right or left wing but, it’s just common math. The robots will start as usual, adapting humans and making us feel comfortable. Why am I sounding like machines are sentient? Humans are the ones driving this massive change to human civilization. As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. But supply can tweak demand. Professors, priests, governments all tried to talk down AI, but the supply came, and humans liked it. Now, humans want more. This is the classic driving the demand up by making supply attractive enough.
We see it with driverless cars, AI in PCs and mobile, smart glasses becoming more stylish and reducing their weight by the advent of smaller chips, and operating systems that adapt to all devices (this is where I see Harmony OS potentially challenging Windows OS in the nearest future. If Windows OS doesn’t evolve, it may die). Companies are now setting up robotic divisions, such as the new Intel announcement of spinning off its AI robotics unit, RealSense, with $50 million in funding to meet increased demand for humanoid robots. Many other companies like Google are advancing their AI robotics with initiatives like Gemini Robotics On-Device,nd Facebook is setting up a superintelligence team with millions in signing bonuses, with Meta reportedly offering staggering compensation packages of $200 million for top talent. Indeed, the robot era will arrive. Agile means we do not need to wait for an era before it ends to start a new one.
Everything will be developed side by side. Companies will try to stay on one part (AI dev, AGI dev, BMI like Neuralink, production robots, home robots, school robots, etc.). The output of one will be the driving input force of another.
So, yes, it is upon us. The robot era. This isn’t just a technological shift; it’s a fundamental reordering of our world, driven by an insatiable race for innovation. The question isn’t if it’s too early, but how we, as humans, adapt to this accelerating future.
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