What is Physical Intelligence, the new Robot Brain Startup?

Yet another Pi is on the scene. This time it's Pi (π)

Hey Everyone,

It’s been an incredible week for robotics innovation. And it just got even better! Can you imagine a seed round of $70M to Build AI-Powered Robots for Any Application?

This is one of the most massive seed rounds for robotics-AI we’ve ever seen.

A huge Google and UC Berkeley team spin-off is now taking place with a new company called Physical Intelligence, which is breaking news. Before we talk about Physical Intelligence and their funding round though, one quick thing:

OpenAI is really investing in the future of robots here, basically out-doing Tesla itself. It’s contributing to a better robot-human interface. OpenAI has partnered with Figure AI, a startup developing humanoid robots.

With OpenAI, Figure 01 can now have full conversations with people

• OpenAI models provide high-level visual and language intelligence

• Figure neural networks deliver fast, low-level, dexterous robot actions
  
  Everything in this video is a neural network:

Source, Figure AI LinkedIn post.

This week on my Robotics Newsletter I talked about Covariant, and Physical Intelligence seems to be hoping to do a very similar thing.

An OpenAI Spinout is building a Robot Brain of AI

Physical Intelligence Is Building a Brain for Robots

• Physical Intelligence's thesis is that the time is right for a new approach to building robotics AI models.

• The company looks to merge the techniques used to build language models with its own techniques for controlling and instructing machines.

So Figure AI, Covariant and Physical Intelligence are beginning to intersect the future of robotics with Generative AI.

While Figure AI appears to be the leader in physical robots, Covariant and Pi are connecting the dots. Figure announced that it had raised $675 million, which it said valued the company at $2.6 billion.

Towards a Universal Model for Smarter Robots

• Formed in 2024 itself by a team of robotics and AI experts, the company plans to create software that can add high-level intelligence to a wide variety of robots and machines.

• Or, as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Karol Hausman  puts it in Physical Intelligence’s first public interview since founding the company: “We aim to bring AI to the physical world with a universal model that can power any robot or any physical device basically for any application.”