In this episode of The Interconnect, Stanford mechanical engineering professor Allison Okamura and OpenAI’s Kevin Weil discuss how artificial intelligence will transform modern robotics, where more capable robots will have a significant impact on the economy, and why the United States still lags behind China, Germany, and other countries in deploying robots in manufacturing.

Guest: Allison Okamura, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow and Science Fellow at the Hoover Institution

Guest: Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer of OpenAI and member at the Council on Foreign Relations

Host: Martin Giles, Managing Editor of the Stanford Emerging Technology Review

Read the 2025 Stanford Emerging Technology Review at https://setr.stanford.edu/