Robots are waiting for a ChatGPT moment: Nvidia’s Les Karpas explains why at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
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Robotics has long been developed but still lacks a breakthrough into everyday life, unlike ChatGPT which made AI practically usable for everyone from 2022.
According to Nvidia leader Les Karpas, the main problem is that there aren't large enough datasets from real robots the way AI companies had for language models. Startups are now trying to solve this through simulation, synthetic data, and foundation models trained on many robot types simultaneously. Karpas presents this at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 alongside founders from Shield AI, Colossal Biosciences, FieldAI, and Foxglove.
Nobody has an internet-wide dataset for physical AI in the way OpenAI, Anthropic, and others had for language.
Vibekollen prepared this summary with AI from the original publication. The content belongs to TechCrunch AI.
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