Rodney Brooks: Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #217

ℹ️ 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:

• Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit
• GiveDirectly: https://givedirectly.org/lex to get gift matched up to $300
• BiOptimizers: http://www.magbreakthrough.com/lex to get 10% off
• Four Sigmatic: https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off
• SimpliSafe: https://simplisafe.com/lex and use code LEX to get a free security camera

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

  host

• Rodney Brooks

  guest

• Narrator

  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.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

Keoki Jackson: Lockheed Martin | Lex Fridman Podcast #33

Elon Musk: Neuralink, AI, Autopilot, and the Pale Blue Dot | Lex Fridman Podcast #49

Grant Sanderson: 3Blue1Brown and the Beauty of Mathematics | Lex Fridman Podcast #64

Rohit Prasad: Amazon Alexa and Conversational AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #57

Gary Marcus: Toward a Hybrid of Deep Learning and Symbolic AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #43

Christof Koch: Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #2