Monday, May 5, 2025

Meta plans main funding into AI-powered humanoid robots

(Bloomberg) — Meta Platforms Inc. (META), after pushing into augmented actuality and synthetic intelligence, has recognized its subsequent huge guess: AI-powered humanoid robots.

The corporate is making a major funding into the class — futuristic robots that may act like people and help with bodily duties — and is forming a brand new group inside its Actuality Labs {hardware} division to conduct the work, in accordance with individuals with information of the matter.

Meta plans to work by itself humanoid robotic {hardware}, with an preliminary give attention to family chores. Its greater ambition is to make the underlying AI, sensors and software program for robots that will likely be manufactured and offered by a spread of corporations, stated the individuals, who requested to not be recognized as a result of the initiative hasn’t been introduced.

Meta has began discussing its plan with robotics corporations, together with Unitree Robotics and Determine AI Inc. A minimum of initially, it doesn’t plan to construct a Meta-branded robotic — one thing that might instantly rival Tesla Inc.’s Optimus — however it might take into account doing so sooner or later, the individuals added.

The humanoid effort mirrors exploratory initiatives at different expertise giants, together with Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Deepmind division. A Meta spokesperson declined to remark.

Meta confirmed the creation of the brand new group to workers Friday, telling them will probably be led by Marc Whitten, who resigned as chief govt officer of Basic Motors Co.’s Cruise self-driving automobile division earlier this month. He was beforehand an govt at gaming firm Unity Software program Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

“The core applied sciences we’ve already invested in and constructed throughout Actuality Labs and AI are complementary to growing the developments wanted for robotics,” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief expertise officer, wrote in a memo reviewed by Bloomberg Information. He talked about the corporate’s developments in hand monitoring, computing at low bandwidth and always-on sensors.

Meta executives imagine that whereas humanoid robotics corporations have made headway in {hardware}, Meta’s advances in synthetic intelligence and information collected from augmented and digital actuality units may speed up progress within the nascent trade. Present humanoids are nonetheless not helpful sufficient to fold garments, carry a glass of water, place dishes in a rack for cleansing or conduct different house chores that might get customers within the class.

“We imagine that increasing our portfolio to speculate on this area will solely accrue worth to Meta AI and our blended and augmented actuality packages,” Bosworth wrote. Whitten, who will report back to Bosworth, could have headcount to rent round 100 engineers this yr, one of many individuals stated.

Related Articles

Latest Articles