After having quite a few conversations about robotics and automation, I’ve noticed people often conflate robotics and AI.
When people explain that the future of robotics may not look the way you expect and the timeline may be longer than you think, the response is often to point out how fast AI is developing.
However, AI and robotics are related—but separate—fields of technology.
AI is software running on static hardware. Robotics is software running on dynamic machinery.
This is why I suspect robotics, especially incredibly intricate and advanced robotics such as humanoid robots, will develop on a longer timeline than AI.
In fact, it seems the order of operations will be to develop AI, then use AI to accelerate the research and development of robotics and automation.
Primarily because both AI and robotics require a lot of electricity, and AI appears to be winning the competition for energy.
Therefore, the robots will likely have to wait until more energy generation is constructed to power them.