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Lex Fridman PodcastRodney Brooks: Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #217
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Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- September 3, 2021
- Duration
- 2h 24m
- Channel
- Lex Fridman Podcast
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Rodney Brooks is a roboticist, former head of CSAIL at MIT, and co-founder of iRobot, Rethink Robotics, and Robust.AI. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS: Rodney's Twitter: https://twitter.com/rodneyabrooks Rodney's Blog: http://rodneybrooks.com/blog/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 1:31 - First robots 22:56 - Brains and computers 55:45 - Self-driving cars 1:15:55 - Believing in the impossible 1:26:45 - Predictions 1:37:47 - iRobot 2:05:09 - Sharing an office with AI experts 2:17:19 - Advice for young people 2:21:05 - Meaning of life SOCIAL:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
- Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman
- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
SPEAKERS
Lex Fridman
hostRodney Brooks
guestNarrator
otherNarrator
otherNarrator
other
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Rodney Brooks, Rodney Brooks: Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #217 explores Rodney Brooks challenges AI hype, defends hard-earned, real-world robotics Rodney Brooks reflects on a lifetime in robotics, from early homebrew 'brains' and MIT leadership to founding iRobot, Rethink Robotics, and Robust.AI, emphasizing how hard real-world perception and manipulation truly are. He critiques the dominance of the Turing-style computation metaphor and argues current AI—especially deep learning—solves narrow labeling and game-playing problems, not grounded, embodied intelligence. Brooks is skeptical about near-term fully autonomous driving and human-level AI, stressing our tendency to overgeneralize from demos and underestimate engineering, infrastructure, and edge cases. He also discusses the messy realities of building robotics businesses, the importance of human-robot interaction, and his hope that future thinkers will escape current conceptual traps around computation and intelligence.
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