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Meta has acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence<\/a> for an undisclosed sum, the social media giant said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a company at the frontier of robotic intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict, and adapt to human behaviors in complex and dynamic environments,\u201d a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n ARI\u2019s team, including its co-founders, will join Meta\u2019s AI unit, the Superintelligence Labs research division. ARI had raised an undisclosed seed round from AI seed firm Aix Ventures.<\/p>\n The startup was building foundation models for humanoid robots to perform all types of physical labor such as household chores. Co-founder Xiaolong Wang was previously a researcher at Nvidia, and an associate professor at UC San Diego, with a list of prestigious awards<\/a> to his name. Co-founder Lerrel Pinto, who previously taught at NYU and co-founded the kid-size humanoid startup Fauna Robotics before Amazon snapped it up<\/a> last month, has also won a string of prestigious awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n ARI will help Meta with its humanoid ambitions. \u201cThis team, led by Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will bring a deep expertise in how we can design our models and frontier capabilities for robot control and self-learning to whole-body humanoid control.\u201d<\/p>\n Meta researchers have been working on humanoid robotics <\/a>tech for years. A leaked memo from a year ago discussed Meta\u2019s ambitions to build such a robot<\/a>, including AI models and hardware, aimed at consumers. <\/p>\n Even if Meta never releases a consumer humanoid product, many AI experts these days believe that the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI) \u2014 the theoretical point at which AI reaches or surpasses human-level intelligence across all domains \u2014 will require training AI models in the physical world, where robots learn through direct interaction rather than data alone.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> The ARI and Fauna deals reflect a broader industry sprint \u2014 one where forecasts vary wildly, from Goldman Sachs\u2019s projection of $38 billion<\/a> by 2035 to Morgan Stanley\u2019s estimate of $5 trillion<\/a> by 2050 \u2014 a spread that reflects both the enormous potential and the uncertainty around tech that\u2019s still finding its footing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n
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