Spirit AI Founder Says Humanoid Robot Brains Could See Breakthrough In 2027

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Humanoid robot brains could take a big leap in 2027, the Spirit AI founder said.

Humanoid robot “brains” could achieve a major breakthrough as early as mid-2027, although widespread deployment of such robots in homes may still be at least eight years away, the founder of Chinese embodied artificial intelligence company Spirit AI said this week.

Despite rapid advances in hardware that have enabled Chinese humanoid robots to sprint, dance and perform backflips on command, robot manufacturers are increasingly turning their attention to the software that determines machines’ intelligence and their ability to deliver economic value in real-world environments.

"The brain is indeed the weakest link in the complete robotics stack," Gao Yang, co-founder and chief scientist of Spirit AI, told Reuters at its Beijing offices on Thursday.

An industry breakthrough ⁠comparable to OpenAI's landmark GPT-3.0 model, which powered ChatGPT, could come around mid-2027, said Gao. Spirit AI's robots have achieved a 90% success rate for simple tasks in structured living-room environments.

"The next one to two years mark the initial window for industrial applications. Two years from now, we'll see robots deployed in commercial service settings doing simpler tasks. Entering homes is far harder than both," said Gao, who is also an assistant professor of robotics at Tsinghua University.

Spirit AI currently has tens of its own Moz1 wheeled humanoid robots deployed on production lines at battery maker CATL and retailer JD.com, which is also an investor.

The 300-person startup has raised over $670 million since its 2024 founding, making it one of China's most rapidly capitalised embodied intelligence firms. It is ‌currently valued ⁠at 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion). Gao declined to comment on any plans for an initial public offering.

"Progress is extremely fast. When Spirit AI was founded, a robot could perform only one isolated task well, like pouring water or folding a piece of clothing," said Gao.

"Today, robots operate across large spatial areas and execute continuous complex workflows."

Difficulties remain in perfecting fine-motor actions like unscrewing a bottle cap and dealing with unseen tasks, he said. ⁠Spirit AI overwhelmingly relies on real-world data to train its robot brains instead of virtual simulations, which many competitors use to reduce model training costs.

"Simulators handle rigid bodies well, but flexible objects like deformable electric cables remain a problem," said Gao.

The company employs around 1,000 contractors ⁠nationwide using wearable data-collection equipment in households and on production lines.

In other robot-training facilities in China, operators may need to repeat a movement more than 50 times to get one "clean" movement with the required precision.

However, Spirit AI found that using "dirty data" with a more diverse range of motions enabled its models to improve faster, Gao said.

Source: Reuters



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