NEARLY four in ten household tasks could be performed by robots within a decade, according to research based on the opinions of artificial intelligence experts. Shopping, cleaning and cooking are all chores for which robots will soon be able to lend a helping hand to humans.

This research estimates that 39% of domestic tasks could be performed by robots by 2033. This figure corresponds to an overall average for a group of 17 identified household tasks.

The majority of AI experts surveyed predict that, within ten years, robots could very well be doing our grocery shopping (59.3%) or other general shopping (50.2%).

Nearly half of the experts think that robots will be able to do the dishes (46.8%), cleaning (46.1%), cooking (46%), ironing (43.5%) and laundry (42.9%).

They are a little less optimistic about robots' abilities when it comes to teaching children (39.6%), gardening (39.6%) and personal assistance (34.77%).

In the domestic sphere, some robots are already starting to be popular in homes, such as smart vacuum cleaners.

There are still some areas in which robots could have a hard time helping out, at least in the next few years.

This applies largely to interactions with children (22.2%), but also to accompanying them outside (23.5%) or looking after them at home (20.7%).

However, these are only forecasts, and do not take into account, for example, the cost of development and production (and then purchase) of these future technologies.

This study was conducted among around 60 researchers specializing in artificial intelligence, mainly from the universities of Oxford in England and Ochanomizu in Japan.