Rodney Brooks Critiques Humanoid Robot Hype

On December 14, Rodney Brooks, the pioneering mind behind modern robotics, shared his sharp critique of the industry's current path. Known as the "godfather of robotics," Brooks co-founded iRobot in 1990 and invented the Roomba, the first commercially successful home robot vacuum that revolutionized everyday automation. His work at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in the 1980s laid the groundwork for practical robots that interact with the real world, not just theoretical machines.

In a New York Times interview, Brooks dismissed the Silicon Valley hype around humanoid robots as a misguided obsession. Companies like Figure AI and Tesla are pouring billions into bipedal bots designed to mimic humans, promising to handle everything from factory work to household chores. Brooks argues this approach is doomed. Humanoid forms, he says, are inefficient for most tasks—why build legs when wheels or arms would do? He points to his own success with simple, task-specific robots like the Roomba, which has sold over 40 million units without needing a human shape.

Brooks warns that the rush for general-purpose humanoids ignores hard lessons from decades of research. True breakthroughs, he believes, come from solving narrow problems exceptionally well, not chasing flashy versatility. As venture capital floods the sector—over $2 billion invested in humanoid startups last year alone—Brooks urges a return to grounded innovation. His voice, from a career spanning Roomba to military drones, carries weight in a field racing toward an uncertain future.