Breaking news from the international tech industry, leading AI company OpenAI has officially restarted its previously abandoned robot development team. According to three anonymous sources, this decision signifies OpenAI's renewed investment in robot technology.
It is understood that OpenAI is currently actively recruiting research engineers to rebuild and expand its robot development team. The team was disbanded in 2020 due to resource adjustments, but now, with technological advancements and growing market demand, OpenAI has decided to refocus on the field of robot technology. Although OpenAI has not publicly disclosed the specific details of its in-house developed robot technology, its latest recruitment announcement explicitly states that new employees will be "integral members of this brand-new team."
Insiders close to OpenAI revealed that this newly formed robot team has already begun operations and has been working for approximately two months. During this period, the team has made initial explorations in various cutting-edge areas of robot technology and achieved preliminary results.
Over the past year, OpenAI has actively invested in several companies focused on developing humanoid robot technology through its internal startup fund. Among them, Figure AI secured a staggering $745 million in financing, 1X Technologies received $125 million, and Physical Intelligence raised $70 million. These investments have not only brought abundant technological resources to OpenAI but also provided strong support for the company's reboot of the robot team.
In February of this year, OpenAI released a press release during its participation in Figure AI's fundraising activities, subtly mentioning the plan to restart the robot team. Subsequently, Figure AI released a remarkable video showcasing the basic speech and reasoning skills demonstrated by its robots, powered by OpenAI's training of a large-scale multimodal model. This achievement fully showcases OpenAI's profound strength and extensive influence in the field of robot technology.
Peter Welinder, Vice President of OpenAI and former member of the robot team, stated in an interview, "We have always planned to return to the field of robotics. Collaborations with companies like Figure AI have paved the way for us to explore the remarkable achievements humanoid robots can make when driven by high-performance multimodal models." He emphasized that OpenAI's robot team will focus on a narrow but crucial research area to drive the rapid development of robot technology.
