The much-anticipated breakthrough that makes robotics feel as accessible and transformative as ChatGPT has not arrived yet. Amulya Vishwanath, founder and managing partner of Techable Ventures, says the industry is still assembling the pieces that could make such a moment possible.
Robotics is still assembling its foundations
Vishwanath calls the current stage a “LEGO era.” In her view, companies and experts are rethinking the foundational software and components that robots need. Those basic pieces matter because innovation is harder to scale until they are in place.
The work includes developing robotic hands and actuators, as well as general-purpose and special-purpose robots. The comparison to LEGO captures a gradual process: individual building blocks are created first, and those components can eventually be brought together into more capable systems.
That framing also sets expectations. The source describes progress as a series of developments, rather than a single finished product appearing all at once. As people continue building robots and their underlying parts, the systems can become more advanced.
Why the building-block stage matters
Physical AI brings artificial intelligence into machines that operate in the physical world. The source focuses on the infrastructure needed for that work: software foundations, robotic hands, actuators, and machines designed for broad or specific purposes.
These elements are connected. A robot’s capabilities depend on both its physical components and the software that supports them. Reworking the foundations can create more room for innovation to grow, while a collection of separate advances may eventually combine into larger, more ambitious systems.
Vishwanath points to earlier periods of technological change as a reason to expect a process of gradual development. “We’ve done this during the internet era,” she said. “We’ve done this long, long time ago with the Industrial Revolution. I think it’s just a matter of time before things fall into place.”
Her comparison offers a broad perspective, not a precise timetable. The immediate focus remains on creating and improving the pieces that robotics will need. The larger payoff depends on those foundations developing and coming together.
Talent is part of the competitive equation
Vishwanath also highlights talent as a critical factor in the U.S. market. For robotics companies, having access to skilled people can help determine whether founders are able to keep developing their ideas and compete as the industry changes.
That makes hiring and connections to potential team members part of the wider challenge. Vishwanath says talent is going to big companies like Anthropic and Nvidia. In that environment, a network that helps founders connect with strong talent can be valuable to a young company.
She describes that network as one of Techable Ventures’ “moats.” After nearly seven years as a product marketer at Nvidia, she says she has built relationships that can help founders find people. Her experience in the space, she said, can make her “the strength or the first call for founders.”
A long build toward a robotics breakthrough
Vishwanath’s career spans engineering and product marketing. Before Nvidia, she held a product marketing role at a company later bought by Intel, and she worked as a digital signal processing engineer at Interconnect Systems, which was later bought by Molex.
That background informs her interest in the foundations of physical AI, from the components used to build robots to the people needed to advance the field. Her “LEGO era” description suggests that the industry is still working through those fundamentals, even as it looks toward a bigger robotics breakthrough.
For now, the path forward runs through building blocks: software, hardware, different kinds of robots, and teams with the skills to improve them. Whether those pieces will combine into the anticipated ChatGPT moment for robotics remains ahead; the source describes it as a future possibility, while the current work is still underway.