The global market for humanoid robots could be worth as much as $9 trillion by 2050, with China expected to dominate demand and basic household models potentially entering homes within the next five years, according to new research. A report by Royal Bank of Canada estimates that humanoid robots could become a core part of everyday life over the coming decades, transforming labour markets and household routines.
But what would happen if such a technology were to land in the hands of terrorists and criminals, who aren't beholden to the norms of modern warfare at all? In a new report, pan-European police agency Europol's Innovation Lab has imagined a not-so-distant future in which criminals could hijack autonomous vehicles, drones, and humanoid robots to sow chaos - and how law enforcement will have to step up as a result.
Rodney Brooks, the cofounder of Roomba vacuum creator iRobot, said the idea of humanoid robots as catchall assistants, the future Elon Musk envisions, is "pure fantasy thinking," in part because robots are coordination-challenged. "Today's humanoid robots will not learn how to be dexterous despite the hundreds of millions, or perhaps many billions of dollars, being donated by VCs and major tech companies to pay for their training," said Brooks in a blog post.
In a video posted to Instagram, EngineAI CEO Zhao Tongyang geared up in leg, stomach, and head pads. Workers taunted him, asking if he was nervous. The company's T800 robot then appeared to kick Tongyang in the stomach, and he can be seen falling to the ground. "Too violent!" Tongyang said in a translation. "Too brutal!" The video featuring its CEO came after EngineAI posted a separate video of its humanoid robot doing kicks and flips.
After all, plenty of industrial robots use wheels to roll around a warehouse, or feature one large, strong, and multi-pivoting arm instead of relying onseveral weaker ones. Besides, the existing crop of humanoid robots is capable of a lot more than walking around and waving their hands. Look no further than a video shared by robot tinkerer and researcher Logan Olson last month, which shows how a humanoid robot can turn itself into a surprisingly creepy crawling machine while using the full extent of its four limbs' freedom of movement.
"Do you see this as, that you'd be selling these to SFPD?" Benioff said. "And saying look, you're down 500 or 1,000. I can offer you robots to do some of these jobs, even if they're not armed or not militaristic. Is that a role that you see them playing in cities?"
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has bet his EV maker on selling millions of humanoid robots, prognosticating earlier this month that the initiative could eventually make up a whopping 80 percent of Tesla's value. He's promised that the company's Optimus robot could generate over $10 trillion in revenue in the long term, orders of magnitude more than the amount of money the carmaker made last year.
Your estimates are about right. However, intelligent robots in humanoid form will far exceed the population of humans, as every person will want their own personal R2-D2 and C-3PO. And then there will be many robots in industry for every human to provide products & services.- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2025
The kickboxers, pint-sized humanoid robots entered by teams from leading Chinese technological universities, are part of a jamboree of humanoid events taking place at China's latest technology event.
