At the WEF, the future is again on the table. This time it’s not just ”digital identity” or ”rebooted” economies, but a very real vision:
walking, talking humanoid robots in our midst in four to five years’ time.
Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ, said at the WEF Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity Summit in October 2025 that humanoid robots will become part of society by 2030 – and that their introduction will be ”a much bigger shock than any ChatGPT”, only ”four or five years away”(Activist Post)
Care for the elderly, a shrinking population and the idea of a ”digital twin for the whole world” are all wrapped up in the same package. It is no longer just techno-futurism – but a crudely frank vision of how to repackage human labour, human contact and human empowerment.
What was actually said at the WEF?
At the October 2025 meeting in Dubai, a panel entitled ”Regulation: Friend or Foe?” was held, where Hidary painted a picture of the coming years:
- humanoid, walking, talking robots will ”walk among us” within 4-5 years
- at the next WEF Council meeting, robots will also be present in the same room ”sitting in chairs, taking notes and other tasks”.
- The most selling example: home care for the elderly with robots so they don’t have to be taken to nursing homes(Activist Post)
This is not just a one-off event, but a policy that has been in place for years:
- At the WEF ”Summer Davos” conference in June 2025, Professor Vanessa Evers of the University of Twente explained that ”true robot intelligence” requires a global digital twin – a model that combines vast amounts of real-world data and behaviour(Amazon EC2).
- Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and WEF interim vice-chairman, said as early as 2024 that ”the biggest winners in developed countries will be those with shrinking populations”, because replacing people with machines will cause fewer social problems(HackerNoon)
Taken together, these statements paint a clear picture:
An ageing, shrinking population + robotics + a complete data model of the world = the ”solution” to labour shortages, care and productivity.
The question is on whose terms and at whose expense.
Is a ”walking robot in four years’ time” technically realistic?
On a technical level, humanoid robotics has really taken a leap forward – it’s no longer just Boston Dynamics tricks on YouTube videos.
Examples:
- Amazon has been testing the bipedal Digit robot in its warehouses since 2023, to move boxes and make simple, repetitive movements in a logistics environment.(About Amazon)
- BMW tests Figure AI’s Figure 02 humanoid at Spartanburg plant – ~20 kg payload, designed for simple production tasks(bmwgroup.com)
- Tesla Optimus is already doing simple tasks in the factory, such as sorting batteries, but internal reports say the robot is still wobbly and dependent on support structures – meaning ”spectacle ahead, constraints behind the scenes”. (Supercar Blondie)
- Sanctuary AI’s Phoenix robot performed more than 100 different retail tasks in a pilot in Canada over the course of a week – still in a controlled environment and in a restricted scenario.(therobotreport.com)
Eli:
- Yes, humanoids are already in use in closed, controlled environments.
- No, there is still no technical evidence to support the vision that in four to five years’ time robots will be a widespread presence in everyday spaces alongside humans – let alone caring for the elderly on their own.
But the WEF’s rhetoric jumps straight from warehouses to living rooms – and skips all that is difficult:
- the reliability and safety of robots in real, messy environments (home, bathroom, stairs)
- liability if the robot makes a mistake – for example, knocks over an elderly person
- privacy: who owns the camera images, bio-signals and behavioural data collected by the robot?
Technically, humanoids are coming, but the ”shock to society” is not just about the iron, but about the data and power structure they will be connected to.
An old robot or a real person? A ”solution” or a cheap shortcut?
Hidary sells the idea of robots as carers for the elderly as a positive development: elderly people can stay at home and not be institutionalised.(Activist Post)
On paper, this sounds human. In practice, it opens up a nasty series of questions:
- Is it that society does not want to respect caring work with adequate pay and resources – and robots are a cheap substitute?
- Will unwanted immigration and free movement of labour be replaced by a ”nice” robot workforce that never strikes, gets sick or votes the wrong way?
- Who decides who will be a ”real person” and who will be a ”robot carer”? Income level? Postcode?
Japan is used as an example of a country that ”makes the best use of robots” in an ageing society.(Activist Post) But in the real Japan, loneliness, social isolation and suicide among the elderly are already a serious problem – and the solution is not a metal companion, but people, families and communities.
A robot can be a good tool:
lifts, reminds you of your medication, alerts help.
But when it becomes a substitute for human contact, we are no longer in the politics of technology – we are in the retail sale of humanity.
”Digital twin of the whole world” = global surveillance infrastructure
Professor Vanessa Evers is blunt about what ”true robot intelligence” requires:
”We need a model of the world – a digital twin of the whole world.”(Amazon EC2)
What does this mean in practice?
- constantly updated, accurate models of cities, homes, factories, roads
- sensors, cameras, microphones, biosignals – all fed into backend systems
- behavioural data on how people move, talk, react, make decisions
In other words:
if a robot needs a perfect model of the world, someone will collect it.
Link this to previous WEF lines:
- digital identity
- CBDC-type digital currencies
- chat control and infrastructures against ”disinformation”
and you get a very recognisable picture: a real-time, global, behavioural control system where physical robots are just one more interface.
When the WEF talks about a ”digital twin”, it is not talking about a neutral 3D map. It is talking about a behavioural model, where an algorithm evaluates:
- are you stressed
- are you aggressive
- whether you are ”dominant” or ”threatening”
- do you need to intervene in the environment, adjust messages, change offers(The Sociable)
At that point, the robot is no longer just carrying boxes or helping you up from the sofa. It’s a moving sensor and executor.
Larry Fink: ”The winners will be the countries with declining populations”
BlackRock’s Larry Fink said something at a special WEF meeting in April 2024 that ties in directly with this robot speech:
”I can argue that the biggest winners in the developed world will be countries with declining populations(…) These countries are rapidly developing robotics, artificial intelligence and technology. Replacing humans with machines will cause far fewer social problems in countries with declining populations.”(HackerNoon)
This is a cold but honest summary of the WEF’s view of the world:
- population decline is not a crisis if robots fill the gaps
- ”social problems” = people who don’t like being replaced by machines
- with fewer people and more robots, friction is reduced
Add to this:
- ”replacing people with machines”
- ”the digital twin of the whole world”
- ”walking, talking humanoids in four years”
it’s pretty pointless to pretend that it’s just a neutral technological development.
Self-updating regulation – or a permanent shortcut for corporate lobbyists?
Hidary also proposes a model where the regulation of humanoid robots ”updates itself”:
- the Board convenes regular meetings of ”key stakeholders”
- review and update the rules every six months
- the regulation itself states that it must be renewed regularly, because rules made 4-5 years ago will be ”irrelevant” in 10 years’ time(Activist Post)
Sounds dynamic and agile. In practice it means:
- a permanent, built-in regulatory industry
- year-round lobbying from the same big companies that have funded and developed robots from the start
- a situation where the ordinary citizen or independent researcher has virtually no access to the process – even if a robot enters his living room, not the WEF meeting room.
When the regulation itself says that it is always ”temporary” and ”upgradable”, no limit is permanent. Every principle – privacy, freedom of movement, the right to refuse – can always be reopened ”as technology evolves”.
What should we conclude from this?
- Humanoid robots are coming – but not in the form the WEF is selling.
In the next few years, we will see more and more of them in factories, warehouses and confined environments. It makes technical sense and is useful in some respects. But the vision of a fully autonomous elderly carer in 4-5 years is more a political than a technical promise.(techequity-ai.org) - The biggest risk is not in the robot chassis, but in the data infrastructure behind them.
The ”digital twin of the whole world” is not a play project – it’s a blueprint for continuous, deep control, where every movement, emotion and behaviour becomes raw material to be modelled(The Sociable) - The WEF’s robotic rhetoric is directly linked to demographic and labour policies.
It is clear from the speeches of Fink and Hidary that robots are seen as a solution:
– when the population is shrinking
– when care work is too expensive
– when immigration is politically difficult - The regulatory model is built for flexibility, not protection.
When the ”rules update themselves” in clubs with business, the rights of the ordinary person become a matter of negotiation – not of principle. - Citizens still have one power that the WEF cannot digitise:
the right to say no –
no to a home care robot that records every movement
no to a service linked to a national digital identity
not to politicians who sell the whole package as an ”inevitable future”.
The robot itself is not bad. It is a tool.
But when it is used as a pretext to build a global, self-updating system of control and compensation, the problem is not the machine – it is the people who want to own it.
📚 Sources
- The Sociable / Hackernoon / Activist Post – WEF experts’ claims of humanoid robots within 4-5 years
https://www.activistpost.com/walking-talking-humanoid-robots-are-coming-to-society-in-4-5-years-wef/(Activist Post) - Tim Hinchliffe (X) – Jack Hidary’s live quotes from the WEF Global Future Councils & Cybersecurity meeting
https://x.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1979239184012337168(X (formerly Twitter)) - The Sociable: true robot intelligence requires a digital twin of the entire world – Vanessa Evers from the WEF Summer Davos speech
https://sociable.co/government-and-policy/robot-intelligence-digital-twin-wef-summer-davos/(Amazon EC2) - Hackernoon: BlackRock’s Larry Fink on Social Challenges in Human-Machine Substitution – population decline, robots and ”winning countries”
https://hackernoon.com/blackrocks-larry-fink-on-social-challenges-in-human-machine-substitution(HackerNoon) - The real evolution of humanoid robots: the Tesla Optimus, Figure 02, Digit, Phoenix
– BMW & Figure 02: https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/news/general/2024/humanoid-robots.html(bmwgroup.com)
– Amazon & Agility Digit: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-introduces-new-robotics-solutions(About Amazon)
– Sanctuary AI Phoenix: https://www.therobotreport.com/sanctuary-ai-latest-phoenix-humanoid-can-learn-tasks-in-24-hours/(therobotreport.com)
– Tesla Optimus pilot and constraints: https://supercarblondie.com/tesla-optimus-robot-performing-useful-task/ / https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-optimus-humanoid-robot-training-elon-musk-2025-11(Supercar Blondie)