Sanctuary AI Presents: Phoenix the Robot

The world's first "human-like intelligence in general purpose robots (GPR)," according to Canada's Sanctuary AI, has been revealed in the form of a new humanoid robot. Phoenix expands on some incredibly outstanding prior work and a clever "piloted" method of instruction. Phoenix is the first humanoid general-purpose robot in the world and is driven by Carbon, a cutting-edge and distinctive AI control system. Carbon was created to provide Phoenix with human-like intelligence and allow it to do various tasks to address the labor difficulties many organizations face. Sanctuary has demonstrated that its technology can carry out hundreds of jobs that customers from more than a dozen industries have identified.

The humanoid form is not the most practical shape for a functional robot. However, it is an excellent shape for a robot intended to perform as many of the duties currently performed by humans as feasible. The fifth-generation system carried out "110 retail-related [tasks], including front and back-of-store activities such as picking and packing merchandise, cleaning, tagging, labeling, folding, and more" during the week-long restricted pilot. The "general purpose" part is another critical feature of these humanoid robots. In some respects, developing a system that, in theory, can perform any task that its human coworkers can in the workplace presents a more difficult challenge than developing the hardware itself.

Co-founder and CEO Geordie Rose said, "We designed Phoenix to be the most sensor-rich and physically capable humanoid ever built and to enable Carbon's rapidly growing intelligence to perform the broadest range of work tasks possible." It is powered by Carbon, a "cognitive architecture and software platform" that includes guided learning and reinforcement features and integrates Large Language Model AIs. As a result, it should eventually be able to talk just like ChatGPT and accept commands in natural language.

The features of The Phoenix:

1. Standing at 5' 7" and weighing 155 lbs, with a maximum payload of 55 lbs, it has a human-like shape and function.
2. Leading-edge robotic hands that rival human hand dexterity and exquisite manipulation with a total of 20 additional degrees of freedom and unique haptic technology that simulates touch
3. Enhanced aesthetics with a more vital color scheme and more luxurious textures.

Phoenix is curiously unable to walk now and does not appear to have any immediate plans to learn how. The robot has legs, but Sanctuary has mounted it on a wheeled platform. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, Sanctuary appeared to be perfectly content with this setup until another business developed a suitable walking algorithm that could be purchased, licensed, or open-sourced into the robot. It will move at a top speed of 4.8 km/h (3 mph) while waiting for something to happen.

Sanctuary AI's literal interpretation of "general-purpose" and concentration on developing a technology that can perform physical tasks like a person set it apart from other companies in the sector. According to Rose, "to be general-purpose, a robot needs to be able to do nearly any work task, the way you would expect a person to, in the environment where the work is," While it is simple to become fixated on a robot's physical features, in our opinion, the robot is a prop for the real star of the show, in this case, the Carbon-based mind of our robot that serves as its AI control system.

The business declared the conclusion of its Series A investment round in the spring of last year. The government of Canada contributed C$30 million to the company's Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) in November, increasing Sanctuary AI's total funding to nearly C$100 million. The mission of Sanctuary AI is being supported by its upcoming financing round. Visit the company's official website at https://sanctuary.ai to learn more.