Why Robotics Still Isn’t ChatGPT (Yet)
Amulya Vishwanath spent seven years at Nvidia running product marketing for robotics, and now she’s betting on the physical world through her firm Techable VC. She’s telling Equity podcast that we’re nowhere near a “ChatGPT moment” for robots — and honestly, that’s probably a good thing. The thing is, most people talking about this are way too quick to assume one giant foundation model is gonna solve everything overnight.
The reality is kinda different. As you read up on What is AI, you’ll see it’s not just about big software models — robotics needs actual hardware built right first. Vishwanath says we’re still in what she calls the “Lego era,” which means we’re rebuilding AI Models and actuators and robotic hands and safety standards from the ground up. Some folks like General Intuition’s CEO earlier said a single model would make specialized robot work totally redundant. Vishwanath sees it differently. No joke, this is a big deal in how people talk about where the industry really stands.
When it comes to AI Tokens, the whole concept gets messier in the physical world — and that’s exactly why robotics can’t just copy-paste from the software playbook. Here’s why this perspective matters:
- Expectations vs. reality check: A lot of investors and media are pricing robotics companies like they’re already past the hard part. Vishwanath’s take grounds the conversation back in what’s actually been built — or not built yet — which is exactly the kind of clarity the market needs right now.
- Hardware is hard, man: You can write a better language model on a Friday and ship it Monday. Actuators? Materials science? Safety certifications? Those take years. Building the foundational physical components is way slower than the AI hype cycle suggests, and we need more realism around that timeline.
- The investment signal: Vishwanath is putting her money into physical AI across robotics, materials science, and life sciences — not chasing the “one model to rule them all” fantasy. That tells you where smart early-stage capital is actually flowing, and it matters for anyone tracking where the next wave of value will come from.