Meta’s next big investment is likely to be AI-powered humanoid robots. It is forming a new team to develop AI-powered robots that can assist with physical tasks. The team will be responsible for developing humanoid robotics hardware, potentially including hardware that can perform household chores.
The news comes after Meta initiated a company-wide performance-based layoffs on Feb. 10, affecting approximately 3,600 employees which constituted about 5% of its workforce.
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Meta’s new robotics group is reportedly led by Marc Whitten, former CEO of driverless car startup Cruise. Whitten has previously worked with Amazon, Microsoft, and Sonos.
Meta’s plan isn’t to start with a Meta-branded robot, rather its executives believe the company has an opportunity to build a hardware foundation for the rest of the robotics market, per Bloomberg — similar to what Google accomplished with its Android operating system in the smartphone sector. Bloomberg also reported that Meta has also entered into discussions with robotics companies, including Unitree Robotics and Figure AI, to possibly partner on prototypes.
By entering the field of humanoid robotics, Meta would be joining competitors like Nvidia, Tesla, and Figure AI. Llama is the name of Meta’s main series of AI foundation models, which power a growing suite of generative AI products on the company’s social media platforms.
Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said the robotics product group would focus on research and development involving “consumer humanoid robots with a goal of maximizing Llama’s platform capabilities.”
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“We believe expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs,” said Bosworth. He also mentioned hiring John Koryl—who was previously CEO of second-hand e-commerce company The RealReal—as vice president of retail.
Major tech companies have been investing in robotics for a while, however progress has been slow. Researchers have found that the language-related AI breakthroughs driving chatbot development have not necessarily helped with understanding of the physical world. Meta for years has been funding research into “embodied AI,” in order to develop AI assistants which can navigate the three-dimensional physical world around them.