Anthony Jules is the co-founder and CEO of Robust AI, a robotics company pioneering collaborative systems that blend human and machine intelligence. A 30-year tech veteran and MIT alum, Anthony previously co-founded Sapient Corporation, helped scale it from three to 4,000 employees, and later worked at Google advancing robotics and AI research. With deep expertise spanning software, AI, and organizational design, he offers rare insight into building technology that’s both intelligent and human-centered.
In this episode, he discusses his journey from Trinidad and Tobago to MIT, the evolution of robotics from rigid automation to adaptable collaboration, and how Robust AI is redefining productivity through human-robot teamwork. Anthony shares lessons on scaling companies, designing ethical AI systems, and why transparency and feedback loops are essential for both machines and organizations.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
00:00 Intro & Origin Story
01:27 Founding Sapient Corporation
03:00 Lessons in Leadership and Culture
05:43 Transition to Robotics
06:12 Google Acquisition and Lessons Learned
09:00 Inside Google’s Robotics Vision
11:45 Leaving Google to Start Over
13:55 Founding Robust AI with Rodney Brooks
15:50 Early Challenges and COVID Pivots
19:00 Human-Robot Collaboration
22:00 Cameras vs. LiDAR
24:44 Sensor Debate: Tesla vs. Waymo
26:59 The Robust AI Tech Stack
30:07 Collaborative Productivity
34:14 Real-World Deployments
37:18 Powering Robots with NVIDIA
39:22 Practical Robotics vs. Humanoids
42:40 Partnership with DHL Supply Chain
46:15 The Next Five Years of Robotics
49:33 Synthetic Data and Simulation
51:07 Scaling Phase and Phase Shifts
53:02 Reflections on Growth and Systems Thinking
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