Robotics veteran Jitendra Malik challenges LLM robotics hype with a dexterity benchmark
JitendraMalikCV · x · 2026-09-08
Robotics researcher Jitendra Malik pushes back on claims that LLMs like Astra have made serious robotics progress. He argues current demos show mostly simple pick-and-place tasks with parallel-jaw grippers, where LLMs excel at high-level planning — but robotics fundamentally requires dexterity and dynamics, demanding high-frequency control policies handling torques and forces.
His challenge: prompt an LLM to output high-frequency control commands for a legged robot traversing varied terrain — a task solved by 2021 RSS / 2022 CoRL work, i.e. five-year-old technology. He clarifies he doesn't doubt LLMs' value for planning and agentically assisting robotics research.
Related event: Malik and Isola Debate Whether LLMs Can Control Robots(4 posts)→
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