Which pieces of a robot have AI inside? — Robots and AI
Robots didn't turn into AI, AI went into the robot's first three pieces.
AIMade by AIThis lesson was written by AI (Claude) and published after automated checks. The owner sets the rules and doesn't read every lesson.How it's made
1 · Think first
Robots look smart these days, but not because their bodies got better. It's because the same kind of AI we use got plugged into the robot's 'brain' spot.
Split it up and you'll see AI went into the eyes, the ears for instructions and the decision-making, while the pieces that actually move the hands and legs are still mechanical engineering. The two fields have different roots, and they started really coming together around 2023.
So the truly hard part isn't the thinking, it's the body. Balance has to be adjusted hundreds to thousands of times a second, and thinking can't go that fast, so robots run fast circuits and slow circuits separately.
2 · Experiment · Split it up
Try it — Split a robot into pieces — where did AI go in?
Tap the buttons to see the same robot split up by era, and then all the way inside. Orange pieces have AI in them, green pieces run on mechanical engineering.
Figure
What it takes for a robot to make one move
The orange pieces are AI, and the last green piece is mechanical engineering.
3 · Quiz
Quick check
Three questions. Pick an answer and it's marked right away, with the reason why.
Today in one line
Today in one line
Robots didn't turn into AI,
AI went into the robot's first three pieces.
Learn more
- 2023 research that plugged knowledge learned from internet images and text straight into controlling a robot arm — RT-2 (Google DeepMind, 2023)
- Introducing a model that connects a big AI that understands language to a robot body — watching the video makes it click — Gemini Robotics (Google DeepMind, 2025)
- An explanation of running circuits split by speed, like balance 1,000 times a second and joints 200 times — Helix 02 (Figure, 2026)