https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/29/mit-robotics-pioneer-rodney-brooks-thinks-people-are-vastly-overestimating-generative-ai/ TechCrunch Logo Login * Search * Startups * Venture * Apple * Security * AI * Apps * Events * Startup Battlefield * More + Fintech + Cloud Computing + Layoffs + Hardware + Google + Microsoft + Transportation + EVs + Meta + Instagram + Amazon + TikTok + Newsletters + Podcasts + Partner Content + Crunchboard Jobs + Contact Us Search [ ] AI MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks thinks people are vastly overestimating generative AI Ron Miller 8:00 AM PDT * June 29, 2024 Comment [gettyimages-816888400]Image Credits: Paul Marotta / Getty Images When Rodney Brooks talks about robotics and artificial intelligence, you should listen. Currently the Panasonic Professor of Robotics Emeritus at MIT, he also co-founded three key companies, including Rethink Robotics, iRobot and his current endeavor, Robust.ai. Brooks also ran the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) for a decade starting in 1997. In fact, he likes to make predictions about the future of AI and keeps a scorecard on his blog of how well he's doing. He knows what he's talking about, and he thinks maybe it's time to put the brakes on the screaming hype that is generative AI. Brooks thinks it's impressive technology, but maybe not quite as capable as many are suggesting. "I'm not saying LLMs are not important, but we have to be careful [with] how we evaluate them," he told TechCrunch. He says the trouble with generative AI is that, while it's perfectly capable of performing a certain set of tasks, it can't do everything a human can, and humans tend to overestimate its capabilities. "When a human sees an AI system perform a task, they immediately generalize it to things that are similar and make an estimate of the competence of the AI system; not just the performance on that, but the competence around that," Brooks said. "And they're usually very over-optimistic, and that's because they use a model of a person's performance on a task." He added that the problem is that generative AI is not human or even human-like, and it's flawed to try and assign human capabilities to it. He says people see it as so capable they even want to use it for applications that don't make sense. Brooks offers his latest company, Robust.ai, a warehouse robotics system, as an example of this. Someone suggested to him recently that it would be cool and efficient to tell his warehouse robots where to go by building an LLM for his system. In his estimation, however, this is not a reasonable use case for generative AI and would actually slow things down. It's instead much simpler to connect the robots to a stream of data coming from the warehouse management software. "When you have 10,000 orders that just came in that you have to ship in two hours, you have to optimize for that. Language is not gonna help; it's just going to slow things down," he said. "We have massive data processing and massive AI optimization techniques and planning. And that's how we get the orders completed fast." Another lesson Brooks has learned when it comes to robots and AI is that you can't try to do too much. You should solve a solvable problem where robots can be integrated easily. "We need to automate in places where things have already been cleaned up. So the example of my company is we're doing pretty well in warehouses, and warehouses are actually pretty constrained. The lighting doesn't change with those big buildings. There's not stuff lying around on the floor because the people pushing carts would run into that. There's no floating plastic bags going around. And largely it's not in the interest of the people who work there to be malicious to the robot," he said. Brooks explains that it's also about robots and humans working together, so his company designed these robots for practical purposes related to warehouse operations, as opposed to building a human-looking robot. In this case, it looks like a shopping cart with a handle. "So the form factor we use is not humanoids walking around -- even though I have built and delivered more humanoids than anyone else. These look like shopping carts," he said. "It's got a handlebar, so if there's a problem with the robot, a person can grab the handlebar and do what they wish with it," he said. After all these years, Brooks has learned that it's about making the technology accessible and purpose-built. "I always try to make technology easy for people to understand, and therefore we can deploy it at scale, and always look at the business case; the return on investment is also very important." Even with that, Brooks says we have to accept that there are always going to be hard-to-solve outlier cases when it comes to AI, that could take decades to solve. "Without carefully boxing in how an AI system is deployed, there is always a long tail of special cases that take decades to discover and fix. Paradoxically all those fixes are AI complete themselves." Brooks adds that there's this mistaken belief, mostly thanks to Moore's law, that there will always be exponential growth when it comes to technology -- the idea that if ChatGPT 4 is this good, imagine what ChatGPT 5, 6 and 7 will be like. He sees this flaw in that logic, that tech doesn't always grow exponentially, in spite of Moore's law. He uses the iPod as an example. For a few iterations, it did in fact double in storage size from 10 all the way to 160GB. If it had continued on that trajectory, he figured out we would have an iPod with 160TB of storage by 2017, but of course we didn't. The models being sold in 2017 actually came with 256GB or 160GB because, as he pointed out, nobody actually needed more than that. Brooks acknowledges that LLMs could help at some point with domestic robots, where they could perform specific tasks, especially with an aging population and not enough people to take care of them. But even that, he says, could come with its own set of unique challenges. "People say, 'Oh, the large language models are gonna make robots be able to do things they couldn't do.' That's not where the problem is. The problem with being able to do stuff is about control theory and all sorts of other hardcore math optimization," he said. Brooks explains that this could eventually lead to robots with useful language interfaces for people in care situations. "It's not useful in the warehouse to tell an individual robot to go out and get one thing for one order, but it may be useful for eldercare in homes for people to be able to say things to the robots," he said. More TechCrunch Get the industry's biggest tech news Explore all newsletters TechCrunch Daily News Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch's coverage. Startups Weekly Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. TechCrunch Fintech The latest Fintech news and analysis, delivered every Tuesday. TechCrunch Mobility TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Email address (required) [ ] Subscribe By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. Tags rodney brooks, Robust.AI, Generative AI Robotics MIT's soft robotic system is designed to pack groceries Brian Heater 2 hours ago RoboGrocery combines computer vision with a soft robotic gripper to bag a wide range of different items. MIT's soft robotic system is designed to pack groceries AI AI-powered scams and what you can do about them Devin Coldewey 3 hours ago This is by no means a complete list, just a few of the most obvious tricks that AI can supercharge. AI-powered scams and what you can do about them Venture Identity.vc is bringing capital and community to Europe's LGBTQ+ venture ecosystem Rebecca Szkutak 4 hours ago Identity.vc writes checks that range from EUR250,000 to EUR1.5 million into companies from the pre-seed to Series A stages. Identity.vc is bringing capital and community to Europe's LGBTQ+ venture ecosystem Featured Article Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an 'epidemic of loneliness' In the early 1990s, a researcher at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began work on what would become Paro. More than 30 years after its development, the doe-eyed seal pup remains the best-known example of a therapeutic robot for older adults. In 2011, the robot reached... Brian Heater 5 hours ago Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an 'epidemic of loneliness' AI Apple reportedly working to bring AI to the Vision Pro Anthony Ha 5 hours ago Apple's AI plans go beyond the previously announced Apple Intelligence launches on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company is also working to bring these... Apple reportedly working to bring AI to the Vision Pro Enterprise ServiceNow's generative AI solutions are taking advantage of the data on its own platform Ron Miller 6 hours ago One of the earlier SaaS adherents to generative AI has been ServiceNow, which has been able to take advantage of the data in its own platform to help build more... ServiceNow's generative AI solutions are taking advantage of the data on its own platform AI Here are India's biggest AI startups based on how much money they've raised Jagmeet Singh 7 hours ago India's top AI startups include those building LLMs and setting up the stage for AGI as well as bringing AI to cooking and serving farmers. Here are India's biggest AI startups based on how much money they've raised Venture Defense tech and 'resilience' get global funding sources: Here are some top funders Anna Heim 8 hours ago We live in a very different world since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel. With global military expenditure reaching $2.4 trillion last... Defense tech and 'resilience' get global funding sources: Here are some top funders AI Gemini's data-analyzing abilities aren't as good as Google claims Kyle Wiggers 1 day ago Two separate studies investigated how well Google's Gemini models and others make sense out of an enormous amount of data. Gemini's data-analyzing abilities aren't as good as Google claims Featured Article The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1B stolen records and rising Some of the largest, most damaging breaches of 2024 already account for over a billion stolen records. Zack Whittaker 1 day ago The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1B stolen records and rising Social Apple finally supports RCS in iOS 18 update Cody Corrall 1 day ago Welcome back to TechCrunch's Week in Review -- TechCrunch's newsletter recapping the week's biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. This week, Apple finally added... Apple finally supports RCS in iOS 18 update Featured Article SAP, and Oracle, and IBM, oh my! 'Cloud and AI' drive legacy software firms to record valuations There's something of a trend around legacy software firms and their soaring valuations: Companies founded in dinosaur times are on a tear, evidenced this week with SAP's shares topping $200 for the first time. Founded in 1972, SAP's valuation currently sits at an all-time high of $234 billion. The Germany-based... Paul Sawers 1 day ago SAP, and Oracle, and IBM, oh my! 'Cloud and AI' drive legacy software firms to record valuations AI Women in AI: Sarah Bitamazire helps companies implement responsible AI Dominic-Madori Davis 1 day ago Sarah Bitamazire is the chief policy officer at the boutique advisory firm Lumiera. Women in AI: Sarah Bitamazire helps companies implement responsible AI Crypto IRS finalizes new regulations for crypto tax reporting Anthony Ha 1 day ago Crypto platforms will need to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, starting in 2026. However, decentralized platforms that don't hold assets themselves will be exempt. Those are the main... IRS finalizes new regulations for crypto tax reporting Government & Policy Detroit Police Department agrees to new rules around facial recognition tech Anthony Ha 1 day ago As part of a legal settlement, the Detroit Police Department has agreed to new guardrails limiting how it can use facial recognition technology. These new policies prohibit the police from... Detroit Police Department agrees to new rules around facial recognition tech Fintech Plaid, once aimed at mostly fintechs, is growing its enterprise business and now has over 1,000 customers signed on Mary Ann Azevedo 1 day ago Plaid's expansion into being a multi-product company has led to real traction beyond traditional fintech customers. Plaid, once aimed at mostly fintechs, is growing its enterprise business and now has over 1,000 customers signed on AI MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks thinks people are vastly overestimating generative AI Ron Miller 1 day ago He says that the problem is that generative AI is not human or even human-like, and it's flawed to try and assign human capabilities to it. MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks thinks people are vastly overestimating generative AIImage Credits: Paul Marotta / Getty Images Venture Matrix rebrands India, China units over 'organizational independence' Manish Singh 1 day ago Matrix is rebranding its India and China affiliates, becoming the latest venture firm to distance its international franchises. The U.S.-headquartered venture capital firm will retain its name, while Matrix Partners... Matrix rebrands India, China units over 'organizational independence' Fundraising Amazon hires founders away from AI startup Adept Kyle Wiggers 2 days ago Adept, a startup developing AI-powered "agents" to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its tech to Amazon and the startup's co-founders and portions of its team have joined... Amazon hires founders away from AI startup Adept Fundraising YC alum Fluently's AI-powered English coach attracts $2M seed round Anna Heim 2 days ago There are plenty of resources to learn English, but not so many for near-native speakers who still want to improve their fluency. That description applies to Stan Beliaev and Yurii... YC alum Fluently's AI-powered English coach attracts $2M seed round Space NASA and Boeing deny Starliner crew is 'stranded': "We're not in any rush to come home" Aria Alamalhodaei 2 days ago NASA and Boeing officials pushed back against recent reporting that the two astronauts brought to the ISS on Starliner are stranded on board. The companies said in a press conference... NASA and Boeing deny Starliner crew is 'stranded': "We're not in any rush to come home" Government & Policy Forget the debate, the Supreme Court just declared open season on regulators Devin Coldewey 2 days ago As the country reels from a presidential debate that left no one looking good, the Supreme Court has swooped in with what could be one of the most consequential decisions... Forget the debate, the Supreme Court just declared open season on regulators Apps Android's upcoming 'Collections' feature will drive users back to their apps Sarah Perez 2 days ago As Google described during the I/O session, the new on-device surface would organize what's most relevant to users, inviting them to jump back into their apps. Android's upcoming 'Collections' feature will drive users back to their apps Venture Kleiner Perkins announces $2 billion in fresh capital, showing that established firms can still raise large sums Marina Temkin 2 days ago Many VC firms are struggling to attract new capital from their own backers amid a tepid IPO environment. But established, brand-name firms are still able to raise large funds. On... Kleiner Perkins announces $2 billion in fresh capital, showing that established firms can still raise large sums Startups DEI? More like 'common decency' -- and Silicon Valley is saying 'no thanks' Haje Jan Kamps 2 days ago Welcome to Startups Weekly -- Haje's weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Editor's... DEI? More like 'common decency' -- and Silicon Valley is saying 'no thanks' Security HubSpot says it's investigating customer account hacks Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai 2 days ago The company "identified a security incident that involved bad actors targeting a limited number of HubSpot customers and attempting to gain unauthorized access to their accounts" on June 22. HubSpot says it's investigating customer account hacks Transportation Volkswagen's Silicon Valley software hub is already stacked with Rivian talent Kirsten Korosec Sean O'Kane 2 days ago VW Group's struggling software arm Cariad has hired at least 23 of the startup's top employees over the past several months. Volkswagen's Silicon Valley software hub is already stacked with Rivian talent Featured Article All VCs say they are founder friendly; Detroit's Ludlow Ventures takes that to another level VCs Jonathon Triest and Brett deMarrais see their ability to read people and create longstanding relationships with founders as the primary reason their Detroit-based venture firm, Ludlow Ventures, is celebrating its 15th year in business. It sounds silly, attributing their longevity to what's sometimes called "Midwestern nice." But is it... Connie Loizos 2 days ago All VCs say they are founder friendly; Detroit's Ludlow Ventures takes that to another level Social The White House will host a conference for social media creators Amanda Silberling 2 days ago President Joe Biden's administration is doubling down on its interest in the creator economy. In August, the White House will host the first-ever White House Creator Economy Conference, which will... The White House will host a conference for social media creators Fundraising Pitch Deck Teardown: MegaMod's $1.9M seed deck Haje Jan Kamps 2 days ago In an industry where creators are often tossed aside like yesterday's lootboxes, MegaMod swoops in with a heroic promise to put them front and center. Pitch Deck Teardown: MegaMod's $1.9M seed deck About * TechCrunch * Staff * Contact Us * Advertise * Crunchboard Jobs * Site Map Legal * Terms of Service * Privacy Policy * RSS Terms of Use * Privacy Placeholder 1 * Privacy Placeholder 2 * Privacy Placeholder 3 * Privacy Placeholder 4 * Code of Conduct * About Our Ads Trending Tech Topics * Hubspot Hacks * Kleiner Perkins * FCC Carrier * Supreme Court * Starliner * Tech Layoffs * ChatGPT * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * LinkedIn * Mastodon * Threads (c) 2024 Yahoo. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP