Google’s DeepMind says it will use AI models to power physical robots

Google is bringing its DeepMind artificial intelligence technology models into the physical world to power robots.

The company on Wednesday debuted two new AI models, Gemini Robotics and Gemini Robotics-ER (extended reasoning). They both run on Gemini 2.0, which Google calls its “most capable” AI to date. Gemini Robotics goes beyond outputs like text and images, where generative AI has thrived to date, and into physical action commands to control robots.

Google said in a blog post that it will partner with Apptronik, a Texas-based robotics developer, to “build the next generation of humanoid robots with Gemini 2.0.” Apptronik has work with Nvidia and NASA in the past. The company said last month that Google joined in its $350 million funding round.

In demonstration videos, Google showed Apptronik robots, equipped with the new AI models, plugging something into a power strip, filling up a lunchbox, moving plastic vegetables and zipping up a bag, in response to spoken commands. The company didn’t provide a timeline for when the technology will hit the market.

“To be useful and helpful to people, AI models for robotics need three principal qualities,” Google wrote in the post. “They have to be general, meaning they’re able to adapt to different situations; they have to be interactive, meaning they can understand and respond quickly to instructions or changes in their environment; and they have to be dexterous, meaning they can do the kinds of things people generally can do with their hands and fingers, like carefully manipulate objects.”

Gemini Robotics-ER is designed specifically for roboticists to use as a foundation to train their own models. It’s available to Apptronik as well as “trusted testers” including Agile Robots, Agility Robots, Boston Dynamics and Enchanted Tools.

Google is far from alone in its pursuit of AI for robotics.

In November, OpenAI invested in Physical Intelligence, a startup that focuses on “bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world” by developing large-scale AI models and algorithms to power robots, according to its website.

The same of that investment announcement, OpenAI hired the former head of Meta’s Orion augmented reality glasses initiative to lead the startup’s robotics and consumer hardware efforts. Tesla has also moved into the fast-evolving humanoid robotics industry with the Optimus robot.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that the company sees “robotics as a helpful testing ground for translating AI advances in the physical world.”

Pichai said the robots will use Google’s multimodal AI models to “make changes on the fly + adapt to their surroundings.”

WATCH: Elon Musk on the Optimus robot