(Bloomberg) — A startup backed by former Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt unveiled an industrial robot powered by artificial intelligence, as investors pile into the emerging field of humanoids.
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The general-purpose robot, called Eno, will be capable of “reasoning, adapting and owning outcomes beyond predefined tasks,” Paris-based Genesis AI said in a statement Tuesday. The startup will work with South Korea’s LG CNS to develop particular uses.
The robot’s decision-making speed, highlighted by its skill and dexterity playing the piano, marks a leap forward, Schmidt said in an interview. “When I look at robots, there’s this loop called VLA: vision, language, action,” Schmidt said. “The breakthrough for Genesis is that their algorithms run much faster now.”
Genesis will partner with LG CNS, LG Group’s consulting and IT services arm, to deploy the robot to industrial customers by the end of the year. Genesis is currently raising funds to finance its next steps, co-founder Théophile Gervais said in an interview.
Investors are increasingly looking to AI-powered robots to help automate industrial processes as working-age populations decline. Companies including Figure AI, Tesla Inc. and Nvidia Corp. are funding projects to harness advances in AI to improve robot capabilities.
Several robotics startups in Europe, where Genesis is based, are raising money to implement the technology in real-world settings, such as manufacturing and logistics. In Germany, Neura Robotics raised about $1.4 billion in a funding round this month, while Agile Robots is in discussions on an investment from SoftBank Group Corp.
Eno will need to be trained by its users. “It doesn’t wake up knowing the answer to every question, but it’s smart enough that if you show it a demo it can learn very quickly,” Schmidt said.
Genesis AI has previously previewed its technology in a video demo that showed robotic hands with “human-level capabilities” performing tasks like chopping tomatoes, cracking eggs and playing the piano. A video featuring Eno showed the robot carrying boxes in a warehouse, tidying a house and working in a research lab.
Schmidt said robots will be more useful for highly specialized tasks, like pipetting in drug research, than as domestic helpers.
