Experts predict 39% of household chores will be done by robots by 2033

An estimated 39% of home chores will be handled by robots by 2033, according to a group of experts interviewed for a study published Wednesday.

Researchers based their estimate on a survey of 65 artificial intelligence specialists across the U.K. and Japan.

“Considering that people currently spend almost similar amounts of time on unpaid work as they do on paid work, the social and economic implications of this future of unpaid work could be significant,” wrote the study’s authors from the University of Oxford and Ochanomizu University in Japan.

The experts collectively predicted that grocery shopping was most likely to become automated, while robots were least likely to take over caring for the young or old.

However, the researchers cautioned that predicting the future of automated work is hardly an exact science. They also focused on how the experts responded: Male Japanese experts were the most pessimistic, while male British experts were most optimistic.

“Expert opinion even on technological issues and perhaps especially on technological issues remains socially contingent,” the authors wrote. “Expert opinion cannot be simply taken as a source of objective ‘ground truth.’”

While OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot recently increased AI optimism worldwide, companies and AI evangelists have been predicting a robot takeover for decades. Back in 2007, Honda and Toyota were reportedly “racing to produce the first robots that are intelligent and agile enough to perform chores, drive cars and make ‘autonomous’ decisions.” More than 15 years later, such robots appear to be some ways away.