Meta Acquires Humanoid Robotics Startup Assured Robot Intelligence
Co-founders from Nvidia and NYU to join Meta's Superintelligence Labs as company pursues physical AI ambitions
Quick Look
- Meta has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup building foundation models for humanoid robots to perform physical labor.
- The co-founders, former Nvidia researcher Xiaolong Wang and ex-NYU professor Lerrel Pinto, will join Meta's Superintelligence Labs.
- The acquisition supports Meta's ambitions to develop humanoid robotics and aligns with the belief among AI experts that training in the physical world may be key to achieving artificial general intelligence.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Meta has been working on humanoid robotics technology for years. A leaked memo from approximately a year ago revealed the company's ambitions to build consumer humanoid robots, including both AI models and hardware. Many AI experts believe that achieving artificial general intelligence will require training AI models in the physical world through direct robot interaction.
Meta has acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence for an undisclosed sum, the social media giant said. "We 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," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. ARI's team, including its co-founders, will join Meta's AI unit, the Superintelligence Labs research division. ARI had raised an undisclosed seed round from AI seed firm AIX Ventures. 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 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 last month, has also won a string of prestigious awards. ARI will help Meta with its humanoid ambitions. "This 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." Meta researchers have been working on humanoid robotics tech for years. A leaked memo from a year ago discussed Meta's ambitions to build such a robot, including AI models and hardware, aimed at consumers. Even if Meta never releases a consumer humanoid product, many AI experts these days believe that the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the theoretical point at which AI reaches or surpasses human-level intelligence across all domains — will require training AI models in the physical world, where robots learn through direct interaction rather than data alone.
Open Questions
- What was the acquisition sum?
- How will ARI's technology be integrated into Meta's existing robotics projects?
- When might Meta release a consumer humanoid product?
- What specific tasks will the humanoid robots initially be designed to perform?
