iRobot Founder: Don't Believe the (AI and Robotics) Hype (crazystupidtech.com)

Rodney Brooks, co‑founder of iRobot and longtime MIT robotics professor, is pushing back on the current swirl of AI and humanoid-robot hype. He argues the flashy demos and AGI talk understate how hard it is to operate reliably in messy, real-world environments — the “long tail” of edge cases that delay deployment. Drawing on decades of work (including early SLAM research), he cites autonomous driving as an example: impressive demos in constrained areas, but still limited geographically after decades. Brooks is skeptical of full self‑driving claims (and taxi visions like Tesla’s) and emphasizes that humans and machines will coexist; human intervention and sensible interfaces remain crucial. Practically, Brooks is building that thesis into products at Robust.AI with Carta, a camera-equipped smart cart for fulfillment centers that localizes itself (SLAM/vision), uses commodity hub motors and GPUs, and keeps humans in control via intuitive affordances. Carta reduces worker walking (typical 30,000 steps/day) and cognitive load without attempting full manipulation autonomy — the robot navigates, signals blocked aisles, and amplifies human motion rather than replacing it. His message: meaningful, scalable automation is likely to come from reliable, unsexy systems that exploit cheap sensors/computation (Nvidia GPUs, scooter motors) and human-in-the-loop design — a huge ($4T) but slow-to-mature market often overlooked by hype-driven VC funding.