(Bloomberg) – Meta Platforms Inc. (Meta), after pushing to augmented reality and artificial intelligence, he has marked his big next bet: Humanoid robots powered by AI.
The company invests significantly in the category – futuristic robots that can act as human beings and assist with physical tasks – and forms a new team in its reality hardware subsection division to sustain the work, according to people who with information on the matter.
Meta plans to work on its own humanoid robot hardware, with an initial focus on home tasks. His more ambition is to make the basic AI, sensors and software for robots that will be manufactured and sold by a range of companies, the people said, who asked for not to be identified because the enterprise has not publish it.
Meta has begun to discuss his plan with robotics companies, including Unitree Robotics and AI Figure Inc. At least at first, it does not intend to build a meta-brand-something robot that could compete directly with Tesla Inc. Optimus-but it may consider doing so in the future, the people added.
The humanoid effort reflects audit projects in other technology giants, including Apple Inc. And Google Deplary Depmind the Alphabet Inc. A Meta spokesman refused to comment.
Meta confirmed the creation of the new employee team on Friday, telling them that he will be led by Marc Whitten, who resigned as CEO of Coed Division Self-driving General Motors Co. Earlier this month. Before that, it was an executive in the Gaming Company Unity Software Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
“The core technologies we have already invested in and built across the reality of Labs and AI complements the development of the developments needed for robotics,” wrote Andrew Bosworth, Meta Chief Technology Officer, in a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. He talked about the company's manual tracking, low -bandwidth and sensors' manual traceability.
Meta executives believe that while humanoid robotics companies have made increases in hardware, meta developments in artificial intelligence and data collected from extended devices and virtual virtuality could accelerate progress in the shoots industry. Current humanoids are still not useful enough to bend clothes, carry a glass of water, place dishes in a rack for cleaning or carry out other home tasks that could engage consumers in the category.
“We believe that expanding our investment portfolio in this area will accumulate value to Meta AI and our mixed and extended reality programs,” wrote Bosworth. Whitten, who will report to Bosworth, will have the number of people to hire about 100 engineers this year, said one of the people.
Meta aims to provide what the Google Android operating system and Qualcomm Inc. For the phone industry by building a base for the rest of the market.
The software, sensors and computer packages that Meta already develops for its devices are the same technologies needed to power menoids, according to one of the people involved in the project.
Meta has been investing billions of dollars for years in its reality Labs hardware division, which sells products like the VR Quest headset and the increasingly popular Ray-Ban clever glasses. Meta plans to spend $ 65 billion this year on related products, including artificial intelligence infrastructure and the new robot work.
Tesla Inc. CEO, Elon Musk, has said that his company's Optimus Robot will eventually be sold to consumers and could cost around $ 30,000. Tesla is starting to produce limited this year. Other businesses have also made progress. Boston Dynamics, for example, has already brought market products for automation in warehouses. Some companies focus on selling for businesses and manufacturers, while Meta is intended to sell into homes.
Humanoids are an evolution of the work that companies have been doing in autonomous vehicles. They use similar basic technologies and require a large amount of AI data and processing. But while the security poles are lower – wandering an individual's home instead of traveling 50 miles per hour on an open road – Meta executives believe that humanoids are more challenging because everyone's home has a different plan, while the streets of the city have u are fairly standardized.
Meta will build some of its own hardware, use off -the -shelf components and work with the current manufacturers as soon as it can, said people with information about the project. They added that construction of prototypes and hardware is key for testing before using a platform, even if Meta itself does not eventually release a branded product.
The company sets its work as the platform of choice for the development of robots, says one of the people, adding that the goal was to make Llama Meta software the foundation for robotics researchers worldwide.
Meta will also seek to develop tools for robot security, tackling potential dangers such as someone's hand trapped in an actuator or another part of an humanoid robot. There are also power safety issues, such as how a robot powered down or stops operating the middle of the task if it runs out of power.
While the official push into humanoid robots is new to Meta, the company's fair, or basic AI research group, has been exploring and publishing papers on robotics for months. Apple also recently started publishing AI robotics papers as well.
One person with information about the project said that Meta believes that humanoids are still a few years away from being widely available-and it could be years before the company's platform is ready to underpin third-party products. But it will become a big hub for Meta and the wider technology industry, the person said.
