Renowned Roboticist Warns Investors Against Humanoid Robot Startups: Inefficient, Dangerous and Unscalable

In a stark warning to investors pouring substantial funds into humanoid robot startups, robotic pioneer Rodney Brooks asserts that such investments are misguided.

Brooks, renowned for co-founding iRobot and a long-standing figure at MIT, expresses severe reservations towards ventures like Tesla and Figure, which seek to impart dexterity in robots by exposing them to videos of humans performing tasks. He labels this method as nothing less than misguided idealism.

The root issue lies with the complexity of human hands, equipped with approximately 17,000 specialized tactile receptors that current robotic technology can hardly replicate. Despite advancements in machine learning revolutionizing speech recognition and image processing, these breakthroughs were grounded on established techniques for accumulating relevant data in these areas. Brooks underscores the absence of such a tradition when it comes to touch data.

Another significant concern is safety. Full-sized walking humanoid robots require vast amounts of energy to maintain an upright stance, making them potentially hazardous when they fall. A robot twice the size of today’s models would hold eight times the potential harm.

Brooks forecasts that in fifteen years, successful “humanoid” robots will likely incorporate wheels, multiple arms, and advanced sensors, discarding the human form altogether. He maintains a firm belief that the current wave of investments are funding costly training experiments that will never transition to mass production.