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Generalist Hopes To Be The ChatGPT Of Robotics
Courtesy of Generalist
Robotics startup Generalist has designed a new way to collect data for robots, potentially ushering in the industry’s ChatGPT era — an explosion of innovation that could lead to mass adoption.
The Big Picture: In just a few short years, AI has become ubiquitous… which has now put all eyes on robotics. Several companies are competing to become the OpenAI of that space, but training systems to interact with the physical world is a different beast than training for the digital one. If Generalist has made that process simpler, it could be well ahead of the curve.
Between The Lines: Generalist — founded by former robotics experts from Google and Boston Dynamics — has already raised $140 million from firms like Spark Capital, Nvidia’s NVentures, Bezos Expeditions, and Boldstart Ventures.
Here’s what it’s doing with that investment:
It’s releasing a new model called “GEN-1,” which can help off-the-shelf robots handle a wider range of high-dexterity tasks usually performed by humans, according to co-founder Pete Florence.
That includes “folding laundry and ‘kitting,’ packing multiple different types of items into a single box — while improvising in the messy, unpredictable edge cases that have historically stumped robots,” per Forbes.
The model was trained using a proprietary device called “data hands” — “strap-on devices worn on the wrists that effectively turn a person’s hands into pincer-like robot hands, collecting visual and sensory data.”
Generalist’s data hands operators work alongside the company’s researchers, constantly collecting data and performing a variety of daily tasks. Operators have logged over half a million hours of training.
Final Move: The ethos behind GEN-1 is a concept called “generalization,” meaning that if a system has enough data across a wide variety of tasks, it can improvise to solve strange problems it encounters while doing nearly anything. For example, when Generalist’s disembodied-arms robot was tasked with stuffing toy plushies into an open plastic bag, it did something remarkable when a toy got stuck halfway in — it grabbed the bag and shook it so the toy slid down. The robot was never trained to do that.
The Future: Expect Generalist to strike a deal soon with a top manufacturer, serving as the first real-world test case of GEN-1 in action.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.