Hyundai Motor Group, Boston Dynamics invest US$400-M to create AI institute

Hyundai Motor Group, the parent organization for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis, recently announced that it is making a US$400-million investment in Boston Dynamics, a US-based engineering and robotics design company that has been recently acquired by the South Korean car brand, to establish a new artificial intelligence (AI) institute with the goal of making fundamental advances in AI, robotics, and intelligent machines.

Named Boston Dynamics AI Institute, the new AI center will be led by Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics. It will be headquartered in the heart of the Kendall Square research community in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As a research-first organization, Boston Dynamics AI Institute will work on solving the most important and difficult challenges facing the creation of advanced robots. Elite talent across AI, robotics, computing, machine learning, and engineering will develop technology for robots and use it to advance their capabilities and usefulness. Boston Dynamics AI Institute’s culture is designed to combine the best features of university research labs with those of corporate development labs while working in four core technical areas: cognitive AI, athletic AI, organic hardware design as well as ethics and policy.

“Our mission is to create future generations of advanced robots and intelligent machines that are smarter, more agile, perceptive, and safer than anything that exists today. The unique structure of the Institute — top talent focused on fundamental solutions with sustained funding and excellent technical support — will help us create robots that are easier to use, more productive, able to perform a wider variety of tasks, and that are safer working with people,” said Boston Dynamics AI Institute Executive Director Marc Raibert.

Hyundai Motor Group shared that the Boston Dynamics AI Institute will invest resources across the technical areas of cognitive AI, athletic AI, and organic hardware design, with each discipline contributing to progress in advanced machine capabilities. In addition to developing technology with its own staff, the Institute plans to partner with universities and corporate research labs.

Photos from Boston Dynamics AI Institute and Boston Dynamics

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