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Figure, a new startup, is working on a similar humanoid robot. They just raised $675 million from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft [1]. Not sure about their ch

Figure, a new startup, is working on a similar humanoid robot. They just raised $675 million from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft [1]. Not sure about their chances of succeeding. On the other hand, as a non-American, I admire that the USA is seemingly the only place where people get funding for wonky ideas that sometimes become very successful. 1- https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-at-2point6-billion-by-bezos-amazon-nvidia.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-...

echelon 3y ago
It's not the only one, but it's the one that's raised the most capital. This "robots + AI" space is heating up just as fast as LLMs, and every country seems to have a dozen startups in the ring. Here is just a sample: https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://sanctuary.ai/ https://sanctuary.ai/ https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g (funny) https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chinese_robots_faster_than_optimus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chines... https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot-that-you-command-with-natural-language-110052927.html https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot... https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jywv2/apparently_chinese_robotics_company_working_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jyw... (NSFW) ... Everyone is working on this.
- modeless 2y ago
  A while ago I made a blog post collecting 20+ efforts for humanoid robots specifically. There has been a real explosion in humanoid announcements in the past few months and it's hard to keep up even if you follow the news. https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-humanoid-robot-demos https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-... Edit: Haha, case in point. I opened Twitter and sure enough there's a new announcement of a humanoid robot today, from Intel/Mobileye: https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889 https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889
neom 3y ago
imho, Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?). I've been privileged enough to build in those countries for an extended period of time, and work with builders in many other countries. I strongly believe nobody bruit forces ideas into existence better than them, they make the resources happen in the right way. Even if you're not much into capitalism, how deeply it's been embraced by the culture still fascinating, especially as a Canadian where I believe we do capitalism particularly poorly.
- rmbyrro 3y ago
  > Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?) China is not far behind, despite an authoritarian govt. KR & JP, as well as CH, clearly learned well from Americans.
- fsloth 3y ago
  I agree, the skill inherent apparently in the US culture of using capital to scale things up compared to the rest of the west feels unappreciated. You give a US capitalist money, labour pool, and a goal, they will organize them to a system to deliver miracles. This is not obviously how things go! It is an underappreciated virtue. I wonder if there is research on the topic - I mean Adam Smith is translated to all languages so it’s not about the ideas or non-tacit knowledge. Must be something institutional or otherwise cultural.
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
    It's just a that competition is a core cultural value in these nations, and that competitive spirit lands itself really well to capitalism.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- FpUser 3y ago
  I live in Canada and have found many Canadians lacking drive, curiosity and will. Also far from being straight in business to the point they feel like politicians. In average dealing with USians was much more to my liking (I am originally from the USSR). There are of course exceptions on either side.

echelon 3y ago

It's not the only one, but it's the one that's raised the most capital. This "robots + AI" space is heating up just as fast as LLMs, and every country seems to have a dozen startups in the ring. Here is just a sample: https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://sanctuary.ai/ https://sanctuary.ai/ https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g (funny) https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chinese_robots_faster_than_optimus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chines... https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot-that-you-command-with-natural-language-110052927.html https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot... https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jywv2/apparently_chinese_robotics_company_working_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jyw... (NSFW) ... Everyone is working on this.

modeless 2y ago
A while ago I made a blog post collecting 20+ efforts for humanoid robots specifically. There has been a real explosion in humanoid announcements in the past few months and it's hard to keep up even if you follow the news. https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-humanoid-robot-demos https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-... Edit: Haha, case in point. I opened Twitter and sure enough there's a new announcement of a humanoid robot today, from Intel/Mobileye: https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889 https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889

neom 3y ago

imho, Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?). I've been privileged enough to build in those countries for an extended period of time, and work with builders in many other countries. I strongly believe nobody bruit forces ideas into existence better than them, they make the resources happen in the right way. Even if you're not much into capitalism, how deeply it's been embraced by the culture still fascinating, especially as a Canadian where I believe we do capitalism particularly poorly.

rmbyrro 3y ago
> Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?) China is not far behind, despite an authoritarian govt. KR & JP, as well as CH, clearly learned well from Americans.
fsloth 3y ago
I agree, the skill inherent apparently in the US culture of using capital to scale things up compared to the rest of the west feels unappreciated. You give a US capitalist money, labour pool, and a goal, they will organize them to a system to deliver miracles. This is not obviously how things go! It is an underappreciated virtue. I wonder if there is research on the topic - I mean Adam Smith is translated to all languages so it’s not about the ideas or non-tacit knowledge. Must be something institutional or otherwise cultural.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
  It's just a that competition is a core cultural value in these nations, and that competitive spirit lands itself really well to capitalism.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
FpUser 3y ago
I live in Canada and have found many Canadians lacking drive, curiosity and will. Also far from being straight in business to the point they feel like politicians. In average dealing with USians was much more to my liking (I am originally from the USSR). There are of course exceptions on either side.