There was news that OpenAI was recently considering developing a humanoid robot. Nonetheless, not only is there no specific content, but additionally it is said to not have a high internal importance yet.
The Information reported on the twenty fourth (local time) that OpenAI had recently considered developing humanoids, citing two individuals who participated in the inner discussion.
But he said it was too early to have expectations. OpenAI said it views humanoid robots as a lower priority than developing inference models or artificial intelligence (AI) agents.
The Information reported last May that OpenAI had partnered with robot startup Figure AI and restarted its robot team. On the time, the plan was that Open AI would concentrate on developing AI, the brain of the robot, and Figure AI could be accountable for hardware and testing.
Since this news is a brand new addition, it will probably be seen as meaning that Open AI is expanding into the hardware field.
As well as, since Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that humanoid robots are a chance to make $1 trillion in profits, some analysts say that it is just a matter of time before Open AI jumps directly into robot production.
Nonetheless, OpenAI has already invested in robot hardware startups resembling Figure AI and 1X Technology, and if it enters the hardware field directly, it could clash with them.
A plan to utilize Chinese hardware firms was also mentioned. Like electric cars, robots have also develop into increasingly depending on China for supply chain and manufacturing, and joining hands with Chinese firms is difficult for the Trump administration to simply accept.
In any case, this discussion could be seen as a step forward in Open AI’s interest in humanoid robots.
Meanwhile, Google also announced last week that it was collaborating with humanoid robot startup Aptronic. The plan is to mix Google’s AI and Aptronic’s hardware.
Starting in 2023, Google has established itself as a frontrunner on this field by releasing models resembling ‘RT-1’, ‘RT-2’, and ‘Auto RT’, which apply large-scale language models (LLM) to robots. This collaboration signifies that Google has entered the sector of actual robot production, and Aptronic’s humanoid also appeared within the ‘Gemini 2.0’ launch video.
Aptronic, which spun off from the University of Texas at Austin in 2016, is constructing humanoid robots geared toward warehouse automation and is testing Apollo in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz and logistics company GXO.
Reporter Lim Da-jun ydj@aitimes.com
