Former Nvidia exec says robots are still in their 'Lego era,' far from a ChatGPT moment

Vishwanath spent seven years in product marketing on Nvidia's robotics platform and is now founder and managing partner of Techable VC, investing in physical AI across robotics, materials science, and life sciences. On the TechCrunch Equity podcast, she said robotics is currently in a 'Lego era': the basic building blocks—actuators, manipulators, software, and safety standards—are still being rebuilt. Her view contrasts with another camp. General Intuition CEO Pim de Witte told Equity earlier this year that a single general foundation model could make much of the existing specialized robotics work redundant and trigger a 'ChatGPT moment' for robots. Vishwanath argues that moment has not yet arrived. For early-stage robotics investors and founders, this means specialized investment in underlying hardware remains necessary before general foundation models mature, and betting solely on a single general model to solve everything carries high near-term risk.