Former Meta AR Lead Joins OpenAI To Spearhead Robotics

Key Takeaways

• Caitlin Kalinowski has joined OpenAI to focus on robotics and consumer hardware.
• Kalinowski joins OpenAI from Meta, where she led the development of its AR glasses.
• OpenAI has demonstrated a renewed focus on robotics in 2024.

OpenAI isn’t known for its hardware, but the AI company’s latest hire, Caitlin Kalinowski, hints at a potential expansion into physical electronics.

Building on her experience at Apple and Meta, where she led the design of MacBooks, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and augmented reality (AR) glasses, Kalinowski’s new role will see her lead OpenAI’s work on “robotics and consumer hardware,” she said in a statement .

OpenAI Robotics

Although often overshadowed by ChatGPT and other more well-known AI products, OpenAI has a strong track record for robotics research.

In 2017, the company made a breakthrough  that allowed robotics software to learn a new skill through simulations and then apply the technique to a physical robot.

More recently, it has teamed up with Figure, helping provide the AI brain to power its humanoid robots.

Embodied AI

In a LinkedIn post announcing her new job at OpenAI, Kalinowski said her goal would be “to help bring AI into the physical world.” 

With an initial focus on robotics and partnerships, the role seems oriented toward projects like Figure that embed OpenAI’s existing models within robots built by other companies. 

In addition to Figure, companies like Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics have also begun integrating large language models (LLMs) into their machines.

This trend is sometimes known as “embodied AI,” which refers to placing AI systems within specific mechanical configurations that can act in the physical world. For example, LLMs enable robots to respond to verbal prompts. Meanwhile, robotic arms manipulate objects thanks to computer vision models that process camera data in real-time. 

While OpenAI’s current focus is on partnerships and supporting the development of embodied AI more generally, the company could eventually develop its own hardware.

OpenAI Reboots Robotics Research

Although it disbanded its robotics research group in 2021, evidence of OpenAI’s renewed interest in robotics has emerged this year.

In March, the firm invested in Physical Intelligence, a robotics startup whose stated goal  matches Kalinowski’s comments on bringing AI into the physical world almost word-for-word.

Then, in May, OpenAI rebooted its internal robotics department. According to media reports  at the time, the company set about hiring researchers and engineers to develop new multimodal AI models for embedded applications.

Of course, the notion of hardware-integrated multimodal AI models needn’t be limited to robots.

Given Kalinowski’s background at Meta, where she oversaw the design of the firm’s Orion Smart Glasses, deeper AR integration would also be a natural direction for OpenAI.

About the Author

James Morales

Although his background is in crypto and FinTech news, these days, James likes to roam across CCN’s editorial breadth, focusing mostly on digital technology. Having always been fascinated by the latest innovations, he uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.

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