Facebook’s future is now humanoid, as Meta has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), a robotics startup with dreams of building robots that can do all your chores. ARI's co-founders Xiaolong Wang and Lerrel Pinto, both with impressive academic backgrounds, will join Meta’s AI unit, Superintelligence Labs.

The deal comes as Meta has been working on humanoid robotics technology for years, including a leaked memo discussing the company’s ambitions to build such robots. These could be used in consumer products or, more ominously, to usher in an age of general artificial intelligence (AGI).

With the acquisition, many AI experts believe that Meta is taking a significant step towards training advanced models in the physical world, where robots learn through direct interaction rather than data alone. The path to AGI may require such real-world experience.

The ARI and Fauna Robotics deals reflect a broader industry sprint, with forecasts ranging from Goldman Sachs’ projection of $38 billion by 2035 to Morgan Stanley’s estimate of $5 trillion by 2050. The gap between these numbers highlights the enormous potential but also the uncertainty surrounding this emerging tech.