Episode
#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
2:30:51
Published: Fri Sep 03 2021
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/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (07:33) - First robots (28:58) - Brains and computers (1:01:47) - Self-driving cars (1:21:57) - Believing in the impossible (1:32:47) - Predictions (1:43:49) - iRobot (2:11:11) - Sharing an office with AI experts (2:23:21) - Advice for young people (2:27:07) - Meaning of life
Chapters
In this podcast, Rodney Brooks shares his thoughts on the AI world and his journey in robotics.
00:00 - 03:42 (03:42)
Summary
In this podcast, Rodney Brooks shares his thoughts on the AI world and his journey in robotics. The conversation also touches on studies that show the impact of unconditional cash on various aspects of life.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Michael Milford talks about building Domo, a beautiful humanoid robot, and his research towards getting AI to navigate like humans.
03:42 - 10:50 (07:07)
Summary
Michael Milford talks about building Domo, a beautiful humanoid robot, and his research towards getting AI to navigate like humans.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This podcast discusses Alan Turing's definition of a mechanical machine that can produce an infinite amount of digits, similar to the human brain's computational abilities.
10:50 - 17:17 (06:27)
Summary
This podcast discusses Alan Turing's definition of a mechanical machine that can produce an infinite amount of digits, similar to the human brain's computational abilities. The conversation also touches on the differences between biological and mechanical computers, and how robots are becoming more humanlike in appearance and function.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker predicts that quantum mechanics and dark matter may eventually become outdated theories.
17:17 - 27:18 (10:00)
Summary
The speaker predicts that quantum mechanics and dark matter may eventually become outdated theories. The definition of computation and its understanding has also evolved over time with input from various fields such as AI and artificial life.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast discusses how animal intelligence differs from human intelligence and suggests that our species and Neanderthals likely had some form of computation as well.
27:18 - 32:39 (05:21)
Summary
The podcast discusses how animal intelligence differs from human intelligence and suggests that our species and Neanderthals likely had some form of computation as well.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The contextual comprehension is what makes tasks hard for deep learning systems.
32:40 - 37:24 (04:44)
Summary
The contextual comprehension is what makes tasks hard for deep learning systems. The challenge lies exactly in the things they were good at, such as image and speech recognition, while the human brain excels at solving seemingly complex problems like chess, due to its contextual understanding.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Exploring the timeline of how humans developed communication, language, and agriculture over hundreds of thousands of years, which laid the foundation for modern civilization.
37:25 - 41:53 (04:27)
Summary
Exploring the timeline of how humans developed communication, language, and agriculture over hundreds of thousands of years, which laid the foundation for modern civilization.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The concept of letting reinforcement learning figure everything out is counter-intuitive to how humans, especially children, operate in their environment.
41:54 - 45:34 (03:40)
Summary
The concept of letting reinforcement learning figure everything out is counter-intuitive to how humans, especially children, operate in their environment. This raises questions on how much people can introspect what’s going on, and whether reinforcement learning could mimic the neural network inside a child's mind.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The narrow sense of learning through self-play by systems can lead them to achieve superhuman level performance in games like chess and go without human supervision.
45:34 - 53:51 (08:16)
Summary
The narrow sense of learning through self-play by systems can lead them to achieve superhuman level performance in games like chess and go without human supervision. There's a lot of surprising and beautiful things that neural networks in the deep learning revolution can reveal.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The potential for artificial intelligence in games is limitless, and as long as we continue pushing the boundaries, the future looks very promising.
53:51 - 57:54 (04:03)
Summary
The potential for artificial intelligence in games is limitless, and as long as we continue pushing the boundaries, the future looks very promising.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The transcript discusses the unexpected success of AI systems such as Alpha Go, Alpha Zero, and Alpha Fold in solving complex problems in the fields of gaming, science, and medicine.
57:54 - 1:04:57 (07:02)
Summary
The transcript discusses the unexpected success of AI systems such as Alpha Go, Alpha Zero, and Alpha Fold in solving complex problems in the fields of gaming, science, and medicine. Despite their surprising effectiveness, there is still skepticism around their accuracy and usefulness.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast guests discuss the potential for autonomous vehicles and predict the timeline for when a car will be able to drive coast to coast in the US with no human intervention.
1:04:57 - 1:10:22 (05:24)
Summary
The podcast guests discuss the potential for autonomous vehicles and predict the timeline for when a car will be able to drive coast to coast in the US with no human intervention.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The implementation of fully autonomous train systems in mass transit is in progress in the US, and while the potential to decrease the number of deaths from motor vehicle accidents is significant, the standard for safety is much higher for autonomous vehicles than for human drivers.
1:10:22 - 1:17:18 (06:55)
Summary
The implementation of fully autonomous train systems in mass transit is in progress in the US, and while the potential to decrease the number of deaths from motor vehicle accidents is significant, the standard for safety is much higher for autonomous vehicles than for human drivers.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The current driving problem is still quite hard, and people need to be realistic about the capabilities of current technology.
1:17:18 - 1:25:15 (07:57)
Summary
The current driving problem is still quite hard, and people need to be realistic about the capabilities of current technology. While lane keeping is helpful, a fully autonomous system is still orders of magnitude more valuable.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker emphasizes the importance of belief in achieving impossible goals and that people's usage of a product may differ from their thoughts about it.
1:25:15 - 1:29:30 (04:14)
Summary
The speaker emphasizes the importance of belief in achieving impossible goals and that people's usage of a product may differ from their thoughts about it. The speaker also challenges the issue of journalists and people relying on hype when making decisions.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker expresses their disbelief in engineers and innovators manipulating stock prices through their work and asks about interesting predictions from innovators, including flying cars.
1:29:30 - 1:34:32 (05:01)
Summary
The speaker expresses their disbelief in engineers and innovators manipulating stock prices through their work and asks about interesting predictions from innovators, including flying cars. The speaker plans to review these predictions annually.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The guest talks about the potential for autonomous taxi services in the future, with plans for deployment in major cities like San Francisco.
1:34:32 - 1:38:20 (03:47)
Summary
The guest talks about the potential for autonomous taxi services in the future, with plans for deployment in major cities like San Francisco. However, challenges with driver authority and communication still need to be overcome.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The whole pedestrian problem needs to be solved by autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, which has elements of the trolley problem within it.
1:38:20 - 1:46:37 (08:16)
Summary
The whole pedestrian problem needs to be solved by autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, which has elements of the trolley problem within it. Mobility companies have solutions to it, and there's still a need to solve the challenges in terms of pedestrian safety.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker talks about his experience building a robotics company and visiting small companies in Taiwan outside of TSMC, which inspired innovation.
1:46:37 - 1:53:23 (06:46)
Summary
The speaker talks about his experience building a robotics company and visiting small companies in Taiwan outside of TSMC, which inspired innovation. The speaker also highlights how Apple, a company that nobody thought would be a trillion-dollar company, has paved the way for other trillion-dollar companies to emerge, including in the field of robotics.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker talks about the target of their company to build $3,000 robots with force feedback that are safe for people to be around and how they got robots out of the cage in factories that were safe for people and robots to be next to each other.
1:53:23 - 1:58:51 (05:28)
Summary
The speaker talks about the target of their company to build $3,000 robots with force feedback that are safe for people to be around and how they got robots out of the cage in factories that were safe for people and robots to be next to each other.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
A discussion around the US government's authority to restrict foreign investment in American defense companies is highlighted, citing an example of a previous invocation with a company involved in gearbox production.
1:58:51 - 2:02:19 (03:27)
Summary
A discussion around the US government's authority to restrict foreign investment in American defense companies is highlighted, citing an example of a previous invocation with a company involved in gearbox production.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The conversation explores the potential of creating AI systems that can make humans fall in love with them and vice versa, and identifies the criteria for such successful systems.
2:02:19 - 2:07:52 (05:32)
Summary
The conversation explores the potential of creating AI systems that can make humans fall in love with them and vice versa, and identifies the criteria for such successful systems.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The Turing test, which gauges a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour that's indistinguishable from an actual human, isn't necessarily the best way to measure intelligence.
2:07:52 - 2:13:21 (05:29)
Summary
The Turing test, which gauges a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour that's indistinguishable from an actual human, isn't necessarily the best way to measure intelligence. Conversation, when none exists, is a more intuitive illustration of how far we are from solving intelligence than computer vision.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The purchase of eight or nine robotics companies by Google had a negative impact on the field as it locked away bright minds and their adjacent ideas, resulting in a lack of success for the companies in the long term.
2:13:21 - 2:18:21 (04:59)
Summary
The purchase of eight or nine robotics companies by Google had a negative impact on the field as it locked away bright minds and their adjacent ideas, resulting in a lack of success for the companies in the long term. Additionally, the reasons behind Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert's harsh criticism of neural networks in their book Perceptrons remain unclear, despite Marvin's PhD thesis being on neural networks.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker reminisces about joy memories of having access to technology before anyone else and shares a story involving Donald Knuth.
2:18:21 - 2:23:06 (04:44)
Summary
The speaker reminisces about joy memories of having access to technology before anyone else and shares a story involving Donald Knuth.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this podcast, the speaker talks about how he wants to understand how order comes from disorder, despite his atheism.
2:23:06 - 2:29:14 (06:08)
Summary
In this podcast, the speaker talks about how he wants to understand how order comes from disorder, despite his atheism. He also discusses the lack of a one-size-fits-all answer to achieve success and gives his thoughts on providing advice to young people.
Episode#217 – Rodney Brooks: Robotics
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this podcast, Rodney Brooks discusses the entertainment and even absurdity of life and his love for robots with the host.
2:29:14 - 2:30:44 (01:29)
Summary
In this podcast, Rodney Brooks discusses the entertainment and even absurdity of life and his love for robots with the host. The conversation includes the Three Laws of Robotics from Isaac Asimov.