Meta reportedly built a humanoid robot, Max, with Fourier
The Information reports Meta and China's Fourier built a humanoid prototype in about three months and are on a second version. Meta says it won't sell it.
Meta has built a prototype humanoid robot with Chinese robotics company Fourier and is already working on a second version, The Information reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the project. Meta has not announced the robot. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report.
The Information's article is paywalled. The details below come from Investing.com's summary of that report; we have not independently confirmed them.
According to the report, the prototype is internally called Max. It weighs about 106 pounds, stands roughly 1.5 meters tall, and was built in about three months. It reportedly runs on Nvidia's Jetson Thor chip and has a display that can mimic facial expressions, built-in speakers, and five-fingered hands meant for handling small objects.
Meta's robotics team reportedly traveled to China to work with Fourier, and Max was shown to some Meta employees at an internal robotics summit in late August. Work on Max 2 began in September, with a redesigned torso, better hands, a projector, and extra sensors to help with stairs, the report said.
Meta told The Information that the Fourier work is internal research and experimentation, and that it has no plans to sell the units.
Why it matters
According to the report, Meta sees humanoids as a possible physical body for its Muse AI agent, doing chores at home. If the report is accurate, a working prototype in three months with an outside hardware partner would suggest big AI companies don't have to build robot bodies from scratch. For now this rests on one outlet's anonymous sources, and Meta hasn't confirmed any specs.
New to robots? Start with our beginner's guide: How robots work: a beginner's guide for BattleBots fans.