The scientist predicted the complete disappearance of humanoid robots.
Pioneer in robotics Rodney Brooks explained why humanoid robots are doomed to fail. The essay "Why Modern Humanoids Don’t Learn Agility" was published on the researcher’s website.
The co-founder of iRobot and Rethink Robotics, as well as a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), stated that agility is the main problem for modern robots. Brooks believes that Tesla, Figure AI, and other companies are investing billions in creating humanoid robots, but such machines will never be as agile and nimble as humans.
Brooks noted that robots can be taught to recognize speech or analyze images using large language models (LLM) — because these skills can be represented as structured datasets. However, one cannot make a machine mobile and agile simply by showing it some videos. According to the researcher, billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla claims breakthroughs in robot creation, but "without sensitive sensor data and reliable manual control, any demonstration of capabilities becomes little more than a show."
Brooks pointed out that bipedal machines lacking agility will become dangerous to humans. As the roboticist predicted, in the future, people will abandon the idea that a robot must necessarily resemble a human, and machines will remain with wheels, complex manipulators, suction cups, and cameras.
