Meta’s former head of augmented actuality {hardware} introduced on Monday she is becoming a member of OpenAI to guide robotics and client {hardware}, based on a submit on LinkedIn. OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that Caitlin Kalinowski will probably be becoming a member of the startup.
Kalinowski is a {hardware} government who started main Meta’s AR glasses crew in March 2022. She oversaw the creation of Orion, the spectacular augmented actuality demo that Meta lately confirmed off at its annual Join convention. Kalinowski additionally led the {hardware} crew behind Meta’s digital actuality goggles for roughly 9 years. Earlier than that, she labored at Apple, designing the {hardware} for MacBooks.
“I’m delighted to share that I’m becoming a member of OpenAI to guide robotics and client {hardware},” mentioned Kalinowski in her submit. “In my new function, I’ll initially deal with OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to assist convey AI into the bodily world and unlock its advantages for humanity.”
Probably, Kalinowski will work together with her previous boss, former Apple government Jony Ive, on a brand new AI {hardware} machine that OpenAI and Ive’s startup, LoveFrom, are constructing collectively. In September, Ive confirmed he was constructing a {hardware} product with OpenAI, describing it as “a product that makes use of AI to create a computing expertise that’s much less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”
OpenAI additionally lately began hiring analysis engineers for a robotics crew that’s geared toward serving to OpenAI’s companions incorporate its multimodal AI into their {hardware}. The reboot of OpenAI’s robotics crew comes roughly 4 years after the startup disbanded its {hardware} analysis to focus its efforts on software program. In 2018, OpenAI constructed a robotic hand that would discover ways to grip objects all by itself.
A number of firms already are incorporating OpenAI’s fashions into their {hardware}. The obvious is Apple, which can launch its ChatGPT integration for the iPhone later this 12 months. One other is the robotics firm, Determine, whose humanoid 01 robotic leverages OpenAI’s software program for pure speech conversations.
