Figure, which is less than two years old and does not yet have a commercial product, aims to ship billions of human-like robots to workplaces and homes worldwide. The company previously announced a partnership with BMW to use its robots in a car plant in South Carolina. OpenAI, which had previously paused its robotics research to focus on AI language models, sees the partnership as an opportunity to explore new ways robots can assist in everyday life.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI is partnering with robotics startup Figure to integrate its AI systems into humanoid robots, with the financial terms of the deal undisclosed.
- Figure, which is less than two years old and doesn't have a commercial product yet, has secured $675 million in venture capital funding from a group including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, Nvidia, and the startup-funding divisions of Intel and OpenAI.
- The collaboration will see OpenAI building specialized AI models for Figure’s humanoid robots, likely based on OpenAI’s existing technology such as GPT language models, the image-generator DALL-E and the new video-generator Sora.
- Despite the challenges and debates on the usefulness of humanoid robots, Figure CEO Brett Adcock envisions shipping billions of human-like robots to workplaces and homes around the world.