It is clear that the field of Robotics is experiencing a significant transformation, with the driver being the advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs). In 2023, the excitement around LLMs centered on their ability to improve daily tasks such as answering queries, writing emails, or building websites; we continue to believe that their true potential lies far beyond these relatively mundane applications, and Robotics provides early evidence.

We had likened copilots and chatboxes to emails in the early days of the Internet when they were a novelty. Just as emails did not constitute the entirety of the Internet revolution, the current low-end uses of LLMs do not fully represent the real power of generative AI (GenAI), which is turbocharging innovation across sectors.

Robotics’ transformative journey is worth understanding in this regard. The integration of GenAI into robotics is reshaping the core software that powers these machines. LLMs, with their ability to understand human languages, are proving to be invaluable in operating robots. However, the most significant leap in robotics comes from the ability of machines to learn mechanical behaviour through observation, a paradigm shift from traditional rule-based programming.

This observation-based learning, akin to how Google's neural machine translation in 2016 revolutionized language translation by mimicking the way children learn, is leading to staggering improvements in robotics. It opens up possibilities for in-home robots that can perform household chores, a concept that until recently was more science fiction than reality.

The implications of this robotics revolution extend beyond household convenience. The same principles of observation-based learning that are advancing robotics are also propelling developments in driverless cars and have potential applications in numerous other fields. As machines become capable of screening and generating molecules or proteins, we could see ground-breaking solutions in healthcare, environmental sustainability, and even in areas like solid-state battery technology.

GenAI-caused transformations will keep changing as Robotics will also prove to be another milestone along the way.