AI, agents, robots: our insane WestWorld future

Is your AI agent running a restaurant — or a factory — while you sleep?

In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Jensen Teng, CEO and co-founder of Virtuals, to unpack one of the boldest (or craziest) visions in tech today: a hybrid economy powered by AI agents, humanoid robots, teleoperation, and blockchain coordination.

An economy that may not really need humans for much at all ...

Virtuos has already facilitated:

• $14B in tokenized asset trading

• $30M+ raised for founders

• 100+ live AI agents

• $500M in “agentic GDP”

Now they’re expanding into embodied AI — launching EastWorlds, a vertically integrated robotics incubator with 30 Unitree G1 humanoids in a 10,000 sq. ft. lab.

We cover:

• What “agentic GDP” really means

• How AI agents coordinate using blockchain

• Why teleoperation is the bridge to full autonomy

• The economics of outsourcing physical labor via robots

• Why security guards may be a Day 1 use case

• The data gap holding back robotics

• Tokenization as a potential solution to AI-era inequality

• Whether this future looks more like Stripe… or Westworld

This isn’t sci-fi. It’s already underway.

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Guest

Jensen Teng

CEO & Co-founder, Virtuals

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If you care about the future of work, robotics, AI agents, tokenization, and the economic systems emerging around them — this is a must-watch.

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⏱ CHAPTERS

00:00 The Wild Vision: AI Agents Running the World

01:10 What Is an “Agent-Based Society”?

03:00 $14B in Tokenized Assets & 100+ Live Agents

06:30 Agent-to-Agent Protocols & Blockchain Coordination

09:45 Why Digital-Only Agents Aren’t Enough

12:30 Enter Humanoid Robots

15:20 Teleoperation as the Bridge to Autonomy

18:40 The Labor Market Shock (Security Guards, Electricians & Wage Arbitrage)

22:15 Why Robots Still Crush Soda Cans

24:30 The Missing Robotics Data Problem

28:00 Building EastWorlds: 30 Unitree G1s & $2M+ Investment

31:45 Why 3 Fingers Might Beat 5

34:00 Westworld, Stripe & the Payments Layer for AI

38:00 Where Do Humans Fit in an Agent Economy?

42:00 Tokenization as a Future Income Model