OpenAI is making a comeback in the robotics industry by relaunching its previously abandoned robotics team, Forbes reports. The company is currently hiring research engineers to rebuild the team, which was shut down in 2020. Although OpenAI has not publicly announced its robotics efforts, a recent job listing revealed that new hires would be among the first members of the team. Sources suggest that the group has only been in existence for about two months, and the company has confirmed that it has begun hiring for the team.
In the past year, OpenAI’s startup fund has invested in well-capitalized companies working on developing humanoid robots, such as Figure AI, 1X Technologies, and Physical Intelligence. The company hinted at a possible reboot of its robotics efforts in a press release for Figure’s latest fundraise, where a robot demonstrated rudimentary speech and reasoning skills supported by a large multimodal model trained by OpenAI. Vice president Peter Welinder, a former member of OpenAI’s robotics team, stated that they have always planned to return to robotics and see potential in exploring what humanoid robots can achieve with highly capable multimodal models.
Despite the increasing competition in the robotics industry, OpenAI aims to coexist with other companies by building technology that can be integrated into their systems. The company plans to collaborate with external partners and focus on training AI models. It is unclear whether OpenAI will develop robotics hardware, as it previously faced challenges in this area. OpenAI’s evolving ambitions have faced some turbulence recently, including high-level safety team departures and accusations of appropriating actress Scarlett Johansson’s voice for its ChatGPT product “Sky.”
Robotics has always been a key part of OpenAI’s mission, with cofounder Wojciech Zaremba leading a team that initially aimed to build a general purpose robot. In 2019, OpenAI researchers trained neural networks to solve a Rubik’s Cube using a robotic hand, emphasizing the potential of training robotic systems for various tasks. The decision to disband the robotics team in 2020 was attributed to a lack of training data, despite the team’s significant advancements. The company redirected its robotics team to other projects, focusing on reinforcement learning with human feedback for faster progress.
Former members of OpenAI’s robotics team have transitioned to other roles within the company, with Zaremba leading the development of GPT models, Welinder overseeing product and partnerships, McGrew serving as vice president of research, and Weng heading safety systems and participating in the newly formed safety committee. OpenAI’s decision to revive its robotics team reflects the company’s renewed focus on AI-powered robotics and its commitment to advancing technology in collaboration with external partners.
