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Robots With Oven Mitts, Big Promises, and a Reality Check

A robot in dirty oven mitts and an American flag walks into a pitch room.

Not a joke. That’s how Anto, founder of Cosmic Brain AI, opened his pitch on The Pitch.

His claim was simple to say and hard to believe: what if “fold laundry” or “roll a burrito” were skills you could download onto any robot?

“We’re building the Cursor for robotics,” Anto said.

Show a robot a video, it learns the task. No PhD required.

#178 CosmicBrain AI: How to Train Your Robot

The Promise: Skills, Not Machines

Today, training robots is absurdly expensive.

Anto put numbers to it: millions of dollars, hundreds of engineers, thousands of GPUs — just to get a robot to do one thing well. In factories, it’s even worse. Need to learn a new skill?You ship the robot back for retraining and wait months.

Cosmic Brain flips that model:

  • Show the robot a video

  • It learns the task

  • Package that workflow as a “skill”

  • Sell it so others can download it

Imagine mailing your iPhone back to Apple to install Uber. That’s how robots still work.

Anto wants to end that.

The Catch: Physics Doesn’t Care About Pitch Decks

Under the hood are Vision-Language-Action models — LLMs, but for hands, motors, and torque.

Anto claims “one-to-one transfer”: one video, one action. More videos, more autonomy. Runs on-device. No cloud dependency. No exoskeleton rigs.

If it’s that obvious, Immad Akhund asked the uncomfortable question:
“Why isn’t everyone doing this already?”

Rohit Gupta sharpened it further: why wouldn’t Figure, Tesla, or Boston Dynamics just build this themselves?

Anto’s answer: they’re chasing massive foundation models and cloud-scale infra. Cosmic Brain is betting on small, task-specific models that work now, on hardware that already exists.

That may be right. Or it may be simple to describe and brutal to make robust.

Platform or Feature?

This is the honest question hanging over Cosmic Brain.

If they win, they become the training layer for physical AI.

If they lose, they become a feature OEMs internalize once the market matures.

Even the believers admit it feels early.

But maybe the robots are already here — collecting dust in factories — just waiting for their apps.

As more than one investor shrugged after the pitch:

“Robots are cool, man.”

Cool alone doesn’t clear IC. But sometimes, it’s how the next platform sneaks in. 

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