Welcome to the After-On Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Reed.

And this is a series of conversations with thinkers, founders, and scientists.

Take a little time and stretch out because these talks are unhurried and meant to bring

you to a top percentile understanding of something important.

So whether you're into start-up or ideas, a techie or a lit major, take your time, engage

your mind, and you'll be glad you did it.

Especially this week when we'll be talking to...

Robot Assist an AI trailblazer Rodney Brooks. It's a rare and exalted distinction to be considered

a true founding parent of any major field of tech. And it's virtually unheard of for someone

to achieve that in two separate domains. But Rodney's one of the very few people who

have done just that. When he left Australia for the region that would later become known

as Silicon Valley, there were quite literally three mobile robots of consequence on the

entire planet. Years later, Rodney would found a company which has now brought tens of

millions of these critters into the world. His products have saved countless lives, and

have also liberated thousands of acres of carpeting from dust, crumbs, dog hair, and other

detritus. The realm of AI was almost as nason as that of robotics when Rodney first

entered it. And a separate company he founded became the leading provider of AI development

tools throughout the 80s and early 90s. And by the way, he squeezed all of his entrepreneurship

in while pursuing a very storied academic career, largely at MIT, where he ran one of the

two largest and most prominent AI centers in the world for many, many years. Because

Rodney witnessed and shaped so much of the history of both robotics and AI, we'll spend

a bit more time than usual talking about past decades. That's probably a bit more than

...