Hyundai Announces That Its Acquired Boston Dynamics Deepens Its Artificial Intelligence Studies

When Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics at the end of 2020, there were many questions that were raised in the minds and were not answered. At the top of these was the question of why this acquisition would benefit the company. The 30-year-old state-of-the-art robotics firm's work by its last two owners, Google and SoftBank, did not please anyone who expected it. But the Korean automotive giant insisted that things would be different.

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Boston Dynamics AI Institute to Deepen Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Studies

The pairing reminded of a mixed company structure until now. Boston Dynamics looks to pragmatic applications to commercialize robots like Spot and Stretch. That's why Hyundai used this tech for some crazy sci-fi demos, including one at this year's CES, where Spot hung out on Mars as a metaverse avatar.

This morning, the company announced that the robotics firm will lay the foundations for the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, which aims to advance artificial intelligence and robotics research. Headquartered in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, the institute will be led by Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert, who stepped down from the CEO role at the end of 2019 and left the reins to longtime COO Rob Player.

Research has long been a core part of what Boston Dynamics does. It's a tradition that continues after he started working towards commercializing his technology. It's also a big part of what Raibert, a former professor at MIT and CMU, has focused on during his three decades at the company.

Raibert expressed the following in a news-linked broadcast.

The launch of the institute is financed by an investment of approximately $400 million. Hyundai states that they are actively recruiting researchers and engineers. It would certainly make sense to place it in Cambridge, which is within walking distance of some of the world's leading research institutes. Moreover, Ford similarly runs its own robotics research facility with the University of Michigan.