Text to robot, olfactory, and geopolitical strategies

Your new Strategy Toolkit newsletter (June 3, 2025)

(1) But do the robots text you back?

Robotics scientists from MIT, including Daniela Rus, Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, are no strangers to translating discoveries from one field to another. Just look at their work in liquid networks, software modeled on the neural activity of C. elegans, and the spinout company Liquid AI. Now they are taking the same strategic thinking into the building and designing of robots themselves.

“Rus and her team have designed a special AI system trained on the laws of physics that suggests robot designs at a prompt. It’s called “text to robot.”

“So you can start with very simple language prompts such as ‘make me a robot that can walk,’ or ‘make me a robot that can operate a drill,’ or ‘make me a robot that can make lemonade,’” Rus said.

In the robotics lab, AI helped design a three-fingered robotic hand that can operate a syringe. Rus said she can imagine a hospital having a base robotic arm with different attachments, each optimized for various medical tools.”*

* Bousquette, I., “Forget Humanoids. At MIT, Worms and Turtles Are Inspiring a New Generation of Robots,” Wall Street Journal (May 16 2025); https://www.wsj.com/articles/forget-humanoids-at-mit-worms-and-turtles-are-inspiring-a-new-generation-of-robots-3abf7d5f