Sep 18, 2026 · 1h 34m
Open robotics meets the fight over AI control
Hugging Face Co-Founder on Open-Source, Microduck, and NVIDIA | E2339
The episode connects open-source robotics and local models to a larger question: how should societies manage powerful AI without stifling useful innovation?
- 1Hugging Face makes open-source AI commercially viable through model storage, infrastructure, and compute close to GPUs.
- 2The Micro Duck shows how accessible hardware could bring programmable robotics beyond traditional engineers and into classrooms and homes.
- 3The hosts argue that AI policy should favor audits, liability, and defensive security over unrealistic universal shutdown mechanisms.
Don't miss
Thomas Wolf turns the cute Micro Duck into a concrete argument for open, programmable robotics that ordinary users can teach and adapt.
The brief
Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face’s co-founder, explains why the company built the open-source Micro Duck: a deliberately approachable robot that makes experimentation and programmable behavior tangible.
The robot leads to Hugging Face’s less obvious business model, built around storing models, providing infrastructure and compute, and keeping AI data close to the GPUs that use it.
Wolf connects open models and local AI to sovereignty, cultural customization, and defensive security, drawing on Hugging Face’s experience with a cyberattack and the need to protect systems as well as probe them.
The hosts challenge California’s proposed AI kill switch, arguing that targeted audits, liability, and identity checks are more workable than a universal emergency button for frontier models.
The episode closes by moving from robotaxis and AR glasses to a broader communications problem: AI may gain trust through small, practical benefits rather than grand promises.
Featuring
Hugging Face
Nvidia Corporation
Claude
Waymo
JapanListen to the full episode and explore every guest, topic, and moment on PodLume.