Meta plans one “Great investment” in Humanoid robots and is forming a new team within its division Reality Labs To develop this type of machines, according to Bloomberg citing internal sources.
Meta employees have already been informed of the formation of the new team that will be led by the former CEO of Cruise, Marc Whitten, who has held important positions in Amazon, Sonos or Microsoft, where he was one of the founding engineers of the Xbox Division .
Humanoid robots, a new border
It is notoriously difficult to make humanoid robots work properly. Human anatomy is very complex and reproducing that movement of the human body requires hardware and design of enormous sophistication.
Scientists also affect the fact that humanoid robots that show emotions and behaviors similar to humans can lead to something called “Cognitive anthropomorphism”which results when people attribute mental states that they do not possess.
This could raise ethical dilemmas and unrealistic expectations. And they are only some of the challenges that Meta will face in the development of their humanoid robots. Two companies are already in talks with Meta: Unitree Robotics and appears AI Inc. The latter obtained 500 million dollars in Financing from Microsoft and OpenAi last year.
Goal is not well known for its hardware experience. Apart from its line of smart glasses and virtual reality helmets, it does not seem to have much experience, especially taking into account the existing competition. And it is that the field of humanoid robotics is already full of competitors such as Tesla and its Robot Optimus, Boston Dynamics and its Robot Atlas, and even other technological giants such as Samsung or Apple.
However, Meta executives are optimistic about the possibilities of the company, and cite an advantage that they believe has over others, which are the data and its extensive experience with artificial intelligence. The director of Meta technology, Andrew Bosworth, already explained in a memorandum that «The central technologies in which we have already invested and developed in reality labs and are complementary to the development of the necessary advances for robotics».
