Athira Sethu
Kochi, 26 December 2024
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is reportedly mulling developing its own humanoid robot. This, according to a report from The Information, quoting two people who have been informed of the talks. OpenAI has experience in the field of robotics in terms of investments into companies like Figure, 1X, and Physical Intelligence working on AI for robots.
However, OpenAI had earlier stopped developing robotics in 2021 when it closed down its robotics department. It then decided to specialize in other areas, mainly artificial intelligence. However, in the last few years, there has been a huge advancement both in the technology powering the robots and the robots themselves. This has made the robotics field very competitive, as many companies are already moving forward.
If OpenAI decided to jump into the robotics space once more, there would be issues since it is already bustling in terms of the robotics market. There are companies working here for many years, so catching up with them from a dead start would take OpenAI a lot longer to match what is already built; they might buy established startups that work in robotics to have something to begin again.
Although there are challenges, the interest that OpenAI has shown in creating humanoid robots shows that the company is still interested in pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and robotics. Whether OpenAI is going to push forward with this plan or not is unknown, but previous investments have shown that robotics could be an important part of its future.