OpenAI Begins Hiring Engineers for Robotics Division

OpenAI is recruiting engineers for its robotics division across hardware, machine learning, systems, and operations, according to Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman.

“OpenAI Robotics is hiring, looking for exceptional full-stack hardware, ops, systems, and ML engineers to help us program and manufacture robots that are useful for society,” Altman wrote on X on May 31. 

According to him, the company’s near-term focus is on building robots that can assist skilled workers in developing infrastructure. “In the short term, we are focused on robots to support skilled workers to build our future infrastructure.”

“In the long term, we imagine everyone having a personal robot doing anything they need,” he added. 

The company said the new unit, called OpenAI Robotics, has grown out of its world simulation research programme led by researcher Aditya Ramesh. Altman said the effort combines robotics hardware development with machine learning research

The company is asking interested candidates to email their background and evidence of accomplishments directly to its robotics recruiting team.

The announcement marks OpenAI’s return to robotics after shutting down an earlier robotics effort in 2020. That programme produced the Dactyl robotic hand, which was designed to manipulate objects such as a Rubik’s Cube.

Business Insider reported in January that OpenAI had quietly built a robotics lab in San Francisco and was training robotic arms to perform household tasks. Those tasks included folding laundry and putting bread in a toaster. The company has reportedly been exploring ways to combine robotic systems with its AI models.