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In an announcement I strongly suspect is tied to the proliferation of generative AI discussions, the social media giant has shared what it calls “two major advancements toward general-purpose embodied AI agents capable of performing challenging sensorimotor skills.”

Hurst makes a point of describing Agility's warehouse robot Digit as human-centric, not humanoid, a distinction meant to emphasise what it does over what it's trying to be.

In last week’s newsletter, Peter Chen, the CEO of Covariant (who just raised a fresh $75 million), offered some interesting context when it comes to generalized AI:

It’s not so much that the premise of the question is flawed — it’s more a question of reframing it slightly. “Why aren’t there more robots?” is a perfectly valid question for a nonroboticist to ask.

The best-known and perhaps most compelling examples of remote teleoperation and extended reach are the robots NASA has sent to Mars in the last few decades. My PhD student Marsette “Marty” Vona helped develop much of the software that made it easy for people on Earth to interact with these robots tens of millions of miles away.

“How can we bring these two worlds together?” asks Daniela Rus, leader of neural network research at MIT. “And the thesis is that we can use liquid networks — which is a new model for AI.”

Rather than being shoved away in safe spaces, robots are increasingly sharing our workplaces. Amazon's warehouses are already crowded with 200,000 robotic pickers, who work directly alongside hundreds of thousands of human staff to put together and ship customer orders at speed.

At peak hours, a real-life bartender is always at the bar next to the robot; but the technology lets them delegate drinks like a vodka-lemonade, and instead focus on cocktails that require more of a human touch.

Digit has a head containing cameras, other sensors and animated eyes, and a torso that essentially works as its engine. It has two arms and two legs, but its legs are more bird-like than human, with an inverted knees appearance that resembles so-called digitigrade animals such as birds, cats and dogs that walk on their toes rather than on flat feet.

But what I mean more specifically is the systems have to be able to understand speech and they need to be able to convert the understanding of speech into action, which will satisfy job roles across the entire economy".

They made a sequel to the original short earlier this year and continue to regularly update their channel with cryptic follow-ups like this one, featuring the same characters. Currently, they are working on a Kickstarter campaign to launch a full webseries. (God help us all.)

Agility Robotics co-founder and CEO Damion Shelton said the warehouse robot is "just the first use case" of a new generation of robots he hopes will be embraced rather than feared as they prepare to enter businesses and homes.

Sanctuary's newest and first bipedal robot, Phoenix, can stock shelves, unload delivery vehicles, and operate a checkout, early steps toward what Rose sees as a much longer-term goal of getting Robots to come robots to perceive the physical world to be able to reason about it in a way that resembles intelligence.