Introduction to Meta’s New Venture

Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, is shifting its focus from connecting humans to building robotic ones. According to a report from Bloomberg, Meta is planning to invest heavily in a new project to develop AI-powered humanoid robots.

Initial Project Goals and Long-term Ambitions

The project will initially involve building a robot capable of completing household chores. However, Meta’s long-term goal is to focus on developing the AI software that will power these machines, rather than dealing with the hardware. The company aims to create the "brains" of the robots and leave the "bodies" to be built by other robotics companies. Meta does not currently plan to build its own branded bot, according to Bloomberg, and has already begun discussions with companies like Unitree Robotics and Figure AI.

Leadership and Division

The effort will be led by Marc Whitten, who previously served as CEO of the self-driving car company Cruise before resigning earlier this month. Whitten’s team will fall under Meta’s Reality Labs division, which recently achieved moderate success with its Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, selling one million pairs last year. Prior to this, the department was known for spending $50 billion over four years in an attempt to develop the Metaverse, with limited success.

Pivot to AI

Once it became clear that AI would be a major focus area, Meta pivoted its Reality Labs department in that direction. The company believes it has a strong foundation of data from its VR and AR experiments to help develop AI for humanoid robots. This data includes information on how humans interact with the world, collected through its devices.

Data Collection and Usage

Last year, Meta announced that it would start collecting anonymized data from Oculus headsets, including information on hand, body, and eye tracking, as well as physical environments. Additionally, photos and videos taken through the lens of Meta’s Ray-Bans are used to further train its AI systems. Now, the company will attempt to turn this data into the basis for software that can power humanoid robots.

Future Outlook

Meta reportedly believes that humanoid robots are still several years away from being available, and that it will take even longer to develop the underlying AI that will be used by robotics companies. However, with its extensive data collection and experience in AI development, Meta is well-positioned to make a significant impact in this field. As Mark Zuckerberg has shown, the company is not afraid to think outside the box and push the boundaries of what is possible.