Seize the "embodied intelligence" high ground! Meta (META.US) acquires ARI to boost its humanoid Siasun Robot & Automation layout, engaging in a head-to-head competition with Tesla, Inc. and Alphabet Inc. Class C.

Meta Platforms Inc. (META.US) recently announced that it has acquired the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) from Siasun Robot&Automation, marking a significant move for the social media giant in the embodied intelligence field. A company spokesperson stated that ARI is at the forefront of Siasun Robot&Automation's intelligent technology, with the aim of enabling Siasun Robot&Automation to understand, predict, and adapt to human behavior in complex dynamic environments. The acquisition was completed on Friday, with financial terms undisclosed. The team from ARI, including co-founders Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will be joining Meta's Super Intelligence Lab research department. They will closely collaborate with the Meta Robotics Studio, established last year, which focuses on the foundational technical development of humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation. The startup company specializes in building basic models for general humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation to perform various physical tasks, including household chores. Xiaolong Wang previously worked as a researcher at NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) and an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego; Lerrel Pinto taught at New York University and co-founded Fauna Robotics, a company specializing in child-sized humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation, which was acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) last month. ARI had previously received undisclosed seed funding from AI seed fund AIX Ventures. This acquisition will help Meta establish a presence in the field of humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation. Meta stated, "The team led by Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang will bring us deep expertise in the development of cutting-edge capability models such as Siasun Robot&Automation control, autonomous learning, and whole-body humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation control." In fact, Meta's researchers have been working in the field of humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation technology for years, aiming to create future Siasun Robot&Automation that can move like humans and assist in physical tasks. This field is heating up, with industry giants like Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US), Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US), and Amazon.com, Inc. investing heavily in it. An internal memo leaked a year ago revealed Meta's intention to develop such Siasun Robot&Automation for the consumer market, covering both AI models and hardware. The company's goal is to provide a fundamental platform for the entire humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation industry, similar to the Android operating system or Qualcomm (QCOM.US) chips in the smartphone industry, for other companies to use and serve a wide range of commercial entities. This acquisition also reflects a deep consensus in the industry regarding the path to general artificial intelligence (AGI): many AI experts believe that to achieve AI beyond human capabilities, AI models must be trained in the physical world, allowing Siasun Robot&Automation to learn through direct interaction rather than just relying on data. Currently, various institutions have starkly different predictions for this market: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. estimates the market size to be $38 billion by 2035, while Morgan Stanley predicts it to reach $50 trillion by 2050. This significant difference reflects the huge potential in this field and underscores the uncertainty surrounding technologies that are still in the exploration stage.