OpenAI disbands its robotics research team. This is exactly the same team that, for example, taught a robotic arm to solve a Rubik's cube using Reinforcement Learning. This decision was made because the company considers more promising research in areas where physical equipment is not required (except for servers, of course), and there is already a lot of data available. And also for economic reasons, since Software as a Services is a business with a much higher margin. Yes, the joke is that the non-profit organization OpenAI is considered more and more about profit. This is understandable because it takes a lot of money to create general artificial intelligence (AGI) that can learn all the tasks that a person can do and even more.

It's no secret that research in the field of robotics is also a very costly activity that requires a lot of investment. Therefore, there are not so many companies involved in this. Among the large and successful, only Boston Dynamics comes to mind, which has already changed several owners. Did you know that in 2013 Google acquired Boston Dynamics, then Google also scaled down its robotics research program, and in 2017 sold Boston Dynamic to the Japanese firm SoftBank. The adventures of Boston Dynamics did not end there, and in December 2020 SoftBank resold 80% of the shares (a controlling stake) to the automaker Hyundai. This looks somehow fishy as if every company understands after a few years that it is still difficult to make a profit from Boston Dynamics and sells it to another patsy.

In any case, it is very interesting to observe which focus areas are chosen by the titans of AI research. But I'm a bit sad that robots are still lagging behind.