Sanctuary AI and Microsoft collaborate to develop AI models for humanoid robots

Microsoft has recently partnered with Vancouver-based robotics startup Sanctuary AI to develop AI models for general-purpose humanoid robots. This also includes the recently unveiled Phoenix robot by Sanctuary AI.

The company further added that the collaboration would help it achieve the mission of creating the world’s first human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots. The news comes months after Microsoft invested in Figure, a rival company to Sanctuary AI.

Sanctuary AI will leverage Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure to explore the future of general-purpose robots

Both companies will work together to strengthen AI research and development. Sanctuary AI says it will use Microsoft’s Azure in its workloads as it works to build large behavior models (LBMs). LBMs will ground AI in the physical world. And, will further help it understand and learn from real-world experiences.

The robotics startup says that it is leveraging these models for Carbon, Phoenix robots’ AI control system. The said AI control system allows the robot to perform complex tasks as it is based on high-quality behavioral data.

Besides, the company says that Microsoft’s Azure will come in handy for training, inference, networking, and storage. A statement from Geordie Rose, CEO, and Co-Founder, is also published in the announcement post which reads:

Creating systems that think like, and understand us, is one of the biggest civilization-level technical problems and opportunities that we will ever face. A challenge like this requires the best global minds to work together. We’re excited to be working with Microsoft to unlock the next generation of AI models that will power-general purpose robots.

Talking more about the present capabilities of Sanctuary AI’s robots, the robotics startup adds:

The dexterous capabilities of Sanctuary AI’s robots have been tested across 400 customer-defined tasks across 15 different industries, with a focus on automotive, manufacturing, and logistics.

Ashley Llorens, Corporate Vice President and Managing Director, Microsoft Research, also states:

We’re excited to be working with Sanctuary AI to accelerate AI model innovation and embodied AI research in areas like reasoning, planning, and human-agent collaboration.

Microsoft also says that by leveraging Azure resources Sanctuary AI can explore the future of general-purpose robots that can be useful in different industries.