Ashish Kumar, a former AI lead for Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot project, has founded a new startup called Intelligent Machines. [2] The company will reportedly focus on developing non-humanoid industrial robots designed to perform complex tasks typically handled by highly-skilled workers in the manufacturing and aerospace industries. [2]
The San Francisco-based startup has hired several other former members from Tesla's robotics team. [2] Intelligent Machines is currently in the process of raising a seed funding round that could be approximately $100 million. [2] The company's approach to robotics reportedly involves reinforcement learning, a method where robots are trained by being rewarded for accomplishing specific tasks. [2]