ChatGPT Gets Into the Robot Business, Which Could Change Your Office Routines

It looks like artificial intelligence will soon leave computer screens and get into the physical realm. The “ChatGPT moment for robotics is coming,” said Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang. It seems either Huang knew something we didn’t, or he was incredibly prescient because there’s fresh information that the world-leading AI brand OpenAI is very serious about getting into robotics, and its hardware leader Caitlin Kalinowski has even posted job descriptions on X. In a Q&A session after giving a keynote address at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Huang stirred up a lot of excitement about the future of with dramatic ideas about Nvidia’s future in “physical AI”—which means real world, tangible AI hardware. A.k.a. robots. Huang even went as far as saying companies should concentrate on developing humanoid robots because they can tackle difficult terrain that would stymie a wheeled machine. Kalinowski’s job post explained how she was really excited about posting for OpenAI’s first “robotics hardware roles,” including positions for “two very senior tech lead engineering roles” and a technical program manager. The engineers will help the company “design the sensor suite for our robots,” Kalinowski explained, and one will need experience “designing gears, actuators, motors and linkages for robots.” The program manager role will be a “fun, scrappy role to start,” she noted, and it will include work on “standing up our training lab, and keeping us running smoothly as we cycle through our product design phases.” News site TechCrunch dug into the details of the job postings, and found information that shows OpenAI’s planning on “general purpose” and “adaptive” robots, powered by special AI models the company develops, and notes that one listing shows plans for developing and producing hardware at “high volume (1M+).” This news makes it abundantly clear that OpenAI will move speedily into robotics alongside developing its code-based AI products, and try to start building robot hardware sooner rather than later. Kalinowski’s words lend support to the idea OpenAI may be following the startup-style “move fast and break things” mentality that has served other disruptive hardware companies, like SpaceX, so well. And the “general purpose” description tallies nicely with Huang’s call for developing humanoid robots—systems that can maneuver and help out in existing factory or even office workspaces typically designed around the needs of the human body. Why should we care about this niche bit of news? After all, it’s just a job listing for a handful of engineering posts in one company. The fact is that OpenAI could already be one of the best-placed companies in the world to develop AI-powered hardware, like a humanoid robot. The AI leader has access to huge computer power, which will be needed to train the robots to move, react to commands and so on. Thanks to the nature of generative AI system training, it also has access to gargantuan amounts of training data—and it’s easy to imagine plenty of this information could be useful for teaching a robot to learn spoken commands, and detect objects automatically using machine vision. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has also been pushing the notion of AI “agents” as the next big development for AI technology—these are AI systems that can operate autonomously and even make decisions and perform digital actions like filling in forms on websites. This technology will likely translate quite directly into giving real world robots a degree of autonomy—a vital skill if they’re going to work alongside people, who can make surprising decisions to move, speak or perform an action at a moment’s notice. Traditional robotics are a longtime feature of industrial engineering, particularly for manufacturing items like cars. But these machines tend to be static, perform one or two particular tasks, and require very precise positioning of tools and other equipment. Until now robots have often lacked access to the kind of real-world decision making made possible by the AI revolution. OpenAI also joins the ranks of other companies developing cutting edge AI-powered robots: Tesla’s Optimus is one well known example, but other companies like Figure are also making progress. So will your next coworker be an android? Tech luminary Peter Diamandis certainly thinks so. Last year he predicted “millions, then billions of humanoid robots” are coming. OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology, along with other AIs are already helping transform office work. Its entrance to the robotics market is certainly going to accelerate that process. BY KIT EATON @KITEATON