Ex-Nvidia executive: robotics has not had its ChatGPT moment yet
Amulya Vishwanath, who led product marketing for Nvidia's robotics platforms for seven years, says robotics is in a "Lego era." Its basic building blocks are still being rebuilt, so a breakthrough from one general model has not arrived.
Amulya Vishwanath spent seven years leading product marketing for the robotics platforms at Nvidia, the U.S. chipmaker and AI company. She now argues that robotics is in what she calls its "Lego era." In her view, basic building blocks such as actuators, robotic hands, software and safety standards are still being rebuilt. The field, she suggests, has therefore not reached its "ChatGPT moment," the point when the strikingly capable chatbot launched in late 2022.
A competing view
Her assessment runs against the belief that robotics, driven by a general foundation model, is about to have a similar turning point. Pim de Witte, CEO of General Intuition, told TechCrunch's Equity podcast earlier this year that a single general foundation model would make much of today's specialized robotics work redundant, and that this would be that moment.
The podcast conversation
Vishwanath appeared on an Equity episode, where Dominic-Madori Davis interviewed her. She is the founder and managing partner of Techable VC, an early-stage venture firm that invests in physical AI across robotics, materials science and life sciences. The two discussed where she is writing her first checks.
They also covered what she has learned as one of the first women executives to leave Nvidia and launch her own firm. The episode is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and other podcast platforms.
