Jeff Bezos is among the investors pouring money into a San Francisco-based startup working on household robots that perform chores, such as folding laundry and working the toaster.
Physical Intelligence, which launched earlier this year, recently raised $400 million in funding — at a valuation of $2 billion — from a handful of notable investors, including Amazon founder Bezos, ChatGPT maker OpenAI and venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Lux Capital. With this backing, Physical Intelligence aims to push the boundaries of household robotics by developing machines capable of handling a diverse array of domestic tasks.
The New York Times first reported the funding news.
On its website, the company says its mission is to bring general-purpose AI into the physical world as its scientists and roboticists continue to develop foundation models and learning algorithms to power existing and future robots. The latest funding intends to support the development of software aimed at improving robot’s adaptability to new tasks.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for elaboration.
It comes at a time when Big Tech companies, including Microsoft, Google and Meta, are spending billions of dollars to integrate AI into a wide array of tasks, from industrial processes to chatbots and other consumer-friendly products. Last month, Tesla unveiled its vision for Optimus humanoid robots in the home, including the ability to walk dogs and fold laundry, but they appeared to have been manipulated by human operators nearby. It highlighted how some of the most advanced AI and robotic systems still struggle with basic real-world tasks.
Although some robots can perform particular tasks really well — such as brew beer, make ice cream or cook ramen — it’s harder for them to perform a handful of multiple tasks. It’s a challenge researchers and startups have long tried to develop without much to show for it.
Physical Intelligence recently published a paper detailing how its robots are working hard to fold laundry, put bread in a toaster and bag groceries. The company said its model, called π0, is trained on a wide variety of robot configurations and tasks and is more capable of adapting to the physical and functional constraints compared to other robots.
When describing how it fine-tuned the system to fold laundry, using either a mobile robot or a fixed pair of arms, into a neat stack from a pile of tangled shirts, the company said on its site, “to our knowledge, no prior robot system has been demonstrated to perform this task at this level of complexity.”
However, this is far from the first time a robotics company has set its sights on modernizing laundry. In 2010, robotics company Willow Garage once gave away $4 million worth of robots to nearly a dozen researchers to advance the state of general-purpose robots. While one graduate student made progress on folding towels, the startup shut down in 2014 after reportedly spinning off most of its innovations into other private ventures.
With the latest advancements in AI, however, investors appear to be more optimistic that perhaps we’re getting closer to robots lightening the load at home after all.
Watch this: These AI Robots Can Do Your Chores for You
