AI Robots episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 23, 2026 · 23 MIN

AI Robots

from Particles of Thought · host GBH

Daniela Rus has built a robot you can swallow, and that is one of the less surprising things her lab is working on. At MIT's CSAIL, she is leading research at the frontier where artificial intelligence meets the physical world, and the results are unlike anything people have imagined. Daniela joins Hakeem to explore what it will really take for machines to move, reason, and interact the way humans do. Why are today's humanoid robots mechanically impressive but intellectually limited? What is the difference between physical AI and embodied intelligence, and why does it matter? From origami surgeons, to robots inspired by the octopus, this is a conversation about the machines of the futureLearn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube channel.--------------------------Guest Bio:Daniela Rus is a computer scientist and roboticist at MIT, where she serves as Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Her research focuses on the science and engineering of autonomy, including the development of new AI models, and physically intelligent systems. She is the co-founder of Liquid AI, a startup bringing energy-efficient on-device AI models to real-world applications.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jul 23, 2026

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AI Robots

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