Ten years ago, Google DeepMind’s robotics team wanted to build a single model that could go from pixels to motor control. People thought the idea was crazy. Today, much of general-purpose robotics is moving in that direction.

In this episode of Automated, Brian Heater speaks with Carolina Parada, VP and head of robotics at Google DeepMind, about the ideas behind Gemini Robotics and the company’s plan to build an AI layer that can power many different kinds of robots.

Carolina traces her path from speech recognition at Google to self-driving perception at NVIDIA and explains why she has repeatedly pursued technical fields on the verge of transformation. That experience taught her to question established approaches instead of settling for incremental improvements.

She explains why general-purpose robots face an even harder challenge than autonomous vehicles. Roads have lanes, traffic lights, and established rules. Robots operating around people must navigate unstructured environments, adapt to unfamiliar objects, and understand how to “read the room.”

Carolina also breaks down the family of models behind Gemini Robotics, including embodied reasoning, vision-language-action models, and reinforcement-learned whole-body control. She explains how these systems work together and why a smaller on-device model may be more useful when reliability matters more than maximum intelligence.

Brian and Carolina discuss why useful robotics does not have to wait for physical AGI, how Gemini Robotics is expanding what Boston Dynamics’ Spot can do during inspections, and why logistics and manufacturing are likely to see capable systems first. They also explore Google DeepMind’s partnerships with Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, and Agility Robotics, and why Carolina believes one robot will not win it all.

Finally, Carolina explains why robot data alone cannot scale and why physical AI will require a mix of real-world experience, simulation, human video, and robots learning from their own mistakes.

Connect with Carolina Parada
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinaparada

Explore Gemini Robotics 2
https://deepmind.google/blog/gemini-robotics-2-brings-whole-body-intelligence-to-robots/

Register for the Automated Happy Hour with Rodney Brooks
https://luma.com/n688dcl5

Learn more about the Advanced Vision & AI Conference
https://www.automate.org/events/advanced-vision-and-ai-conference

We’d love to hear from you. Have thoughts or guest suggestions?

Reach us at podcast@automate.org

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Carolina Parada on Gemini Robotics, Robot Data and Physical AGI

Automated with Brian Heater

Carolina Parada on Gemini Robotics, Robot Data and Physical AGI