Welcome, humans.

Real quick: If you’re into robots, you’re in luck! The Neuron is getting ready to launch a sister publications all about robots! To get early access when it’s available, click this link to sign up! 

Now, most people think the AI race is about chatbots. It's not. The real race—the one that could reshape manufacturing, space exploration, and the global economy—is happening in physical AI. And Google just made a big, quiet move.

Intrinsic, the robotics software company that started as an Alphabet moonshot, was recently folded into Google proper—with direct access to DeepMind and Gemini. Their CTO, Brian Gerkey, also co-created ROS, the open-source software that runs on over 1 million robots worldwide, including NASA's robots on the International Space Station. Yeah, his code is literally in space.

In our latest podcast episode, Grant sat down with Brian to talk about why robots still can't work in most factories, what it takes to build the "Android of robotics," and why the best robot ideas come from people who know nothing about robots.

Our favorite moments:

• (7:24) Why Intrinsic calls itself the "Android of robotics"—and what that actually means for factories.

• (10:49) "The hardware is willing and the software is weak"—the one-line diagnosis of why automation is stuck.

• (11:48) The stat that shocked Grant: 80% of US manufacturing facilities have zero automation.

• (14:01) How Intrinsic's Vision Model identifies parts with sub-millimeter accuracy using a cheap camera and a CAD file—no training required.

• (26:50) Why friction is a nightmare to simulate—and what that means for the robot training data bottleneck.

• (29:50) "I've got this hammer, which is a robot. That's not the same as knowing what to hit with it." Why you have a better idea for a robot than robotics makers do.

• (34:13) Brian's vision for factory operators becoming robot "creators" using generative AI.

• (43:23) From Space Camp to the Space Station—the code Brian wrote that's orbiting Earth right now.

Why watch this? Because physical AI is where the real economic disruption happens next—and Brian's (37:22) take on why "this time is different" might actually not be different is one of the most grounded perspectives on AI and jobs we've heard from anyone.

Watch and/or Listen now: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

P.S. Brian ended the interview by telling people to go to ros.org, download the software, grab a low-cost robot arm (you can even 3D print one), and just start playing. If you've ever been curious about robotics, there's never been a lower barrier to entry. 🤖

Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our new robotics newsletter here!

Real quick: Want to see your AI-adjacent product or service show up right here, below these podcast promos?

We've got an extra special bundle going right now that is, frankly, bonkers. You can click the link below to learn more, but the fastest way to get a move on this is just to email our ad sales rep Mindy ( [email protected] ) right.

Tell her “I’m asking about the Neuron podcast special” and she’ll hook you up!

🔴 LIVE TOMORROW: AI for Total Beginners — Thursday, April 2 at 1:00PM ET / 12:00PM CT / 10:00AM PT

This week, Grant and Corey are going to walk through The Neuron's 5-Level AI Proficiency Stack: a framework for going from “i’ve never used AI but I want to start” or "I use ChatGPT sometimes" to "AI saves me 10 hours a week." No coding required.

This is the actual learning pattern we’ve developed over the past three years experimenting with AI that we believe separates casual users from people who are getting real, compounding value out of AI every single day.

The levels range from Projects (why your first move isn't prompting) all the way up to Agents (AI that decides what to do and when to do it).

Choose your favorite platform to watch live: Watch on YouTube | Join on LinkedIn

More From The Neuron…

Four recent interviews you’ll definitely want to check out (pick whatever looks interesting to you and dive in!):

1. Curious how AI actually learns to do your job? Watch: The Secret Labs Where AI Learns to Work

Surge AI hit $1.2B in revenue without raising a dime of VC, and they've trained more AI models than almost anyone. VP of Product Nick Heiner reveals why even the best models still fail ~40% of workplace tasks, how 200+ Wall Street experts graded GPT-5, Claude, and Gemini on real finance work, and his bold prediction: a $1B company with one human employee by 2030.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

2. Want to run frontier AI on your home GPU? Watch: NVIDIA's Kari Briski Breaks Down Nemotron 3 (GTC 2026)

Recorded live at GTC, NVIDIA's VP of Generative AI walks through how a 120B parameter model runs as fast as a 12B on a home GPU, why open-source AI token generation exploded 35x in one year, and the wildest AI agent story yet: an NVIDIA dev's AI caught a water leak, texted him, and emailed a plumber.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

3. Worried about your AI chat history? Watch: Our new interview with Eamonn Maguire of Proton on why we need more private AI

Proton's Eamonn Maguire explains the privacy nightmare hiding inside every AI conversation. If you use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for anything sensitive at work, this is the episode that will change how you think about it.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

4. Interested in AI for scientific discovery? Watch: This AI Agent Compressed 8 Years of R&D Into 2 Weeks

SES AI's CEO on how AI agents are transforming materials science. If you think AI is just for chatbots and coding, this will expand your view of what's possible.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Last week, we went live with Dan Shipper (CEO of Every) who broke down how his 25-person team ships AI products with virtually zero hand-written code, and dropped a brand new product live on air (read the blog version of the interview here).

• (3:22) Plus One launched live on the show: One-click hosted OpenClaws that live in your Slack, connected to all of Every's apps (email, writing, docs). Dan's first time talking about it publicly.

• (4:43) The big unlock nobody predicted: Having your OWN claw vs a shared Claude changes everything. Dan's claw "R2C2" handles his bugs, writes YouTube headlines, and keeps notes on quantum physics. It modifies itself to better serve him.

• (18:36) The "holy crap" moment: Every's COO told his claw to call him so he could do email while walking. It called him. Nobody told it how to use Twilio. It just figured it out.

• (42:06) The Pirate and the Architect: Dan's new model for early AI product teams. You need a pirate (ship fast, break things) and an architect (a few hours a week to tuck in the edges). You don't need a full-time architect if you don't know if the product is any good yet.

Watch the full convo here

And if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do! Click the image below to go to our channel and hit “subscribe” to get notified right when new videos go live.

We have a goal to hit 50K subscribers by the end of the year (if not 100K), and we’re only 32K away! If you like learning about AI, and already watch some of our videos, do us a favor and click here to subscribe today.

Dive deeper with these resources:

• Intrinsic — Brian's company; explore the Flowstate platform and what they're building

• ROS (Robot Operating System) — the open-source platform powering 1M+ robots, including NASA's Astrobee

• AI for Industry Challenge — Intrinsic's open competition for developers ($180K in prizes)

• Intrinsic joins Google (Feb 2026) — the official announcement

• Intrinsic Vision Model — the foundation model that won 7/11 benchmarks at ICCV 2025

• LeRobot by Hugging Face — the low-cost robot arm Brian mentioned you can build at home

Stay curious,

The Neuron Team

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