AI is great at predicting text. Can it guide robots?
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere in our virtual lives. It's in our search results and our phones. But what happens when AI moves out of the chat and into the real world? NPR science editor and correspondent Geoff Brumfiel took a trip to the Intelligence through Robotic Interaction at Scale Lab at Stanford University to see how scientists are using AI to power robots and the large hurtles that exist for them to perform even simple tasks. (encore)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from TED Health. |
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| 0:09.3 | This month, tune in to a special series featuring guests on the Science of Raising Kids. |
| 0:15.0 | Listen to TED Health, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:18.8 | You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. |
| 0:23.9 | Hey, Shortwaiver is Regina Barber here. |
| 0:26.4 | I don't know about you, but for me recently, it seems like artificial intelligence is |
| 0:30.9 | everywhere. |
| 0:32.1 | It's in my search results on everyone's phones, being pitched in my email, trying to read my emails. |
| 0:39.1 | So I thought it would be a perfect time to revisit an episode we did last year with NPR |
| 0:43.2 | science correspondent Jeff Brumfield. |
| 0:45.4 | He noticed that AI isn't just showing up online anymore. |
| 0:49.4 | It's creeping into reality, like at Tesla's big marketing event in 2024. |
| 0:55.2 | Yep. |
| 0:55.9 | AI was there. |
| 0:57.9 | Speaking of robots. |
| 1:01.2 | Tesla is obviously a car company, but Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, made a big part of the event |
| 1:08.2 | about a humanoid robot powered by AI and called Optimus. |
| 1:12.1 | The software, the AI inference computer, it all actually applies to a humanoid robot. |
| 1:20.0 | And Google unveiled another humanoid robot that operates using AI. |
| 1:24.4 | We're bringing Gemini 2.0's intelligence to general purpose robotic agents in the physical |
| 1:30.0 | world. |
... |
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