The figure drops openai in favor of internal models

Figure AI, a robotics company that works to attract a general -purpose humanoid robot in commercial and residential use, Tuesday On X, he is coming out of a deal with Openai. The Bay Area -based clothing, instead, decided to focus on the internal AI because of the “main breakthrough”. In an interview with TechCrunch, the founder and CEO Bret Adcock was then tightly harvested to the specifics, but he promised to deliver “something that no one has ever seen to a humanoid” over the next 30 days.

Openai is a long -time investor by figure. The two companies announced a deal Last year, which aims to “develop a next -generation AI models for humanoid robots.” At the same time, the figure announced an increase of $ 675 million, estimating the company at $ 2.6 billion. So far, the figure has raised a total of $ 1.5 billion from investors.

The news is a surprise given the role that Openai plays in the cultural Zeitgeist. Only the association with the company comes with a quick impulse of the profile. In August, the Two companies have announced that the figure 02 humanoid will use Openai models for natural language communication.

The problem with cooperation, according to Adcock, is integration. Openai is a huge company with huge breadth – and intelligence models to match. The embodied AI, which carries artificial intelligence of physical objects such as robots, is not the main focus of Maker Maker. Instead, it suggests Adcock, the right solution is to build an AI model from the end to the end, focused on powering specific hardware.

“We have found that in order to solve the embodied AI on a scale in the real world, you have to integrate vertically AI into the robot,” Adcok told TechCrunch. “We cannot assign AI for the same reason that we cannot assign our hardware.”

Openai has more specialized his bets in the humanoid space. The company is too Main supporter From the Norwegian startup robotics 1X. While the bigger part of the humanoid companies focuses on warehouses and factories, 1x has displaced much of its own focus on the home. In the office of Sunnyvale figure Last SeptemberAdcock told TechCrunch that the company also examines the use of its systems in a home setting.

However, this is not a priority for the figure. In the end, car manufacturers have deeper pockets than people when it comes to exploring new technologies. BMW announced Last year, she began to have figure robots at a factory in South Carolina.

Openai can also explore its own humanoid hardware. Friday, The company submitted A trademark application at the US Patent and Trademark Service (USPTO), including humanoids. The text refers to both “User Programmable Humanoid Robots” as well as “Humanoid robots that have functions for communication and training to support and entertain people.”

IP submission is not a guarantee for future products, but it is difficult to ignore these two pieces of news arriving less than a week. Meanwhile, the mass circles of the figure of the figure allowed him to quickly expand both his hardware and software teams. The company recently moved to a bigger Bay Area office to fit the rapidly developing staff.

As for your own software, there are many things to approach Apple’s ecosystem to develop products. This is an effective way to create software that works especially well with hardware systems. However, it is both difficult and very resource intensive.

Most humanoid companies work on their own AI models to varying degrees, although partnerships are still distributed in the industry. In October Boston Dynamics declared that he works with the Toyota Research Institute to bring artificial smart to the ATLAS Humanoid robot.

TechCrunch turned to Openai for comment.