Amazon Forms Frontier AI & Robotics Team to Revolutionise Automation

Amazon has formed a brand-new frontier AI & robotics (FAR) team based in San Francisco and Seattle. 

The team is focused on developing robotic foundation models covering high-level reasoning and understanding capabilities as well as low-level dexterity and mobility skills. These models can potentially be deployed across Amazon’s vast robot fleet, leveraging the e-commerce giant’s large-scale operations.

Rocky Duan, a senior principal applied scientist at Amazon, expressed his excitement for the initiative on LinkedIn. He stated that the team is currently hiring for various roles, including full-time and internship positions in software engineering and research.

The roles for the FAR team include full-time research, full-time senior research, full-time SWE, full-time MLE, and research internship. 

This new team aims to advance robotics by integrating high-level reasoning with physical dexterity, positioning itself to significantly impact the future of robotics within the company’s operations.

Robotics by Other Tech Giants

Amazon’s move follows a trend among major tech companies, such as Meta, which is developing AI-powered humanoid robots within its Reality Labs division. This initiative focuses on consumer humanoid robots that can perform household chores, leveraging Meta’s Llama AI models to enhance its mixed and augmented reality programs. 

Apple is also exploring robotics, though its entry into the humanoid space is still in the early stages and is not expected to reach mass production until at least 2028. Apple’s approach emphasises anthropomorphic designs, focusing on how users perceive robots rather than their physical appearance.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA launched Cosmos, a platform designed to accelerate the development of physical AI systems, including robotics and self-driving cars and taxis. 

Figure AI, backed by Microsoft, is actively developing humanoid robots and is in discussions to raise significant funding. The company’s founder, Brett Adcock, predicts a future where humanoid robots will be more common than humans in public spaces.

Tesla’s Elon Musk is advancing the development of the Optimus robot, which has demonstrated advanced capabilities like walking on uneven terrain using neural networks. Musk describes Optimus as the “biggest product of any kind ever” and hopes to send it to space onboard his SpaceX.

Also, Apptronik, a US-based humanoid robotics company, has secured substantial funding to expand its production and collaborate with Google DeepMind to create intelligent robots.