Rodney Brooks — Co-founder, iRobot & Rethink Robotics; Former Director, MIT CSAIL

**Rodney Brooks** is the co-founder of **iRobot** (creators of the Roomba), co-founder of **Rethink Robotics** (pioneers of collaborative robots), and former Director of the **MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)**. He is one of the most influential roboticists in history and a prominent voice cautioning against AI hype while advocating for practical, useful robotics.