OpenAI has recently explored building its own humanoid robot, according to The Information. The report cites “two people with direct knowledge” of those conversations. The ChatGPT maker has been involved in the space for some time now, by way of financial backing. It has thus far invested in Figure and 1X, along with the “general purpose AI” firm, Physical Intelligence.
In 2021, OpenAI abandoned such ambitions after quietly closing its robotics division. Of course, plenty has happened in the past three years, with breakthroughs in both hardware and the AI systems that power them. Short of making some big-ticket startup acquisitions, a reformed OpenAI robotics division would have a lot of catching up to do in an already competitive young category.