Covariant
@CovariantAI
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Empowering robots to see, think, and act.
Berkeley, CA
Joined November 2018
After 2+ years in stealth, we’re excited to launch today! Thank you to our team, customers, partners and investors, we couldn’t have done it w/o your support and trust. Exciting milestone, even more exciting journey ahead! .
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Today, we are introducing RFM-1, our Robotics Foundation Model giving robots human-like reasoning capabilities.
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Thanks to @BillGates for stopping by to experience the future of AI robotic automation!.Bill challenged the Covariant Brain, our AI Robotics platform, to pick chaotically arranged items. The Covariant Brain did not disappoint, directing the robots to pick with accuracy and ease!
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We’ve raised $40m in Series B funding led by @IndexVentures w/ AI-focused @Radicalvcfund + existing investor @AmplifyPartners. Grateful for the support of our investors, customers + partners as we continue to bring AI Robotics to the real world!
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Our Robotic Foundation Model, trained on data from real-world warehouse operations and simulated scenarios, enables our robots to identify objects, understand 3D spaces, and predict optimal grasping and placement.
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Large language models are trained to predict the next token in text. For robotics, this means training models on physical interaction datasets to build generalized AI that can simulate the physical world. We've built RFM-1, the first commercial Robotics Foundation Model. RFM-1
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Interested in what ABB's competition looked like? We made a new *uncut* 30+ min video to show an ABB/Covariant robot picking lots of difficult items from the original challenge, from rubber 🦆 to 🍎to💊bottles. (Full video here:
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Scaling Law in Robotics: We see that as we train RFM-1 on more data, our model's performance improves predictably. For example, our research data indicates that by increasing the size of the dataset on which RFM-1 is trained, pick retries can be reduced by 43%. More importantly,
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RFM-1's latest scaling update enables robots with in-context learning of grasping improvements. The video shows the self-reflective reasoning capability — after a few tries and failing, the robot has an internal dialogue, hypothesizing that its current gripper is not suited for
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The best performing AI matters. @ABBRobotics invited 20 robotics companies to solve 26 complex piece-picking challenges, half of them kept secret. Covariant was the only one to successfully complete them all. See the full video here:
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A multimodal any-to-any sequence model, RFM-1 is an 8B parameter transformer trained on text, images, videos, robot actions, numerical and sensor data. RFM-1 tokenizes all modalities into a common space and performs autoregressive next-token prediction with a broad range of
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Curious what a Covariant-powered robot looks like in live production? Here are a few videos from the Obeta warehouse near Berlin!
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Our co-founders made the bold move to leave the early team at OpenAI. Why? To create AI for the physical world—productized robots that can reason and adapt to real-world scenarios. An early conviction that is echoed by @ilyasut in a discussion on @dwarkesh_sp's podcast.
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Why do robots struggle w/ seemingly simple tasks? In her @NeurIPSConf talk, Covariant AI research scientist Anusha Nagabandi explains why, and argues that model-based deep RL gives robots the reasoning + adaptation skills needed to make sense of the world:
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This is not a one-off cycle. This is performance over repeated cycles – the new benchmark for reliable AI Robotic systems. High pick rates, navigating cluttered environments, no double-picks, scoops, or errors – just consistent flawless execution, parcel after parcel.
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Trained on millions of picks from Covariant-powered robots worldwide, the Covariant Brain helps @KNAPP_AG_de's Pick-it-Easy robot recognize objects in totes and calculate grip points, learning and improving as it goes.
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Take a behind-the-scenes look at the Covariant Brain’s high-precision AI visualization in action – picking and placing diverse consumer items.
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Leveraging collective knowledge from every Covariant Brain-powered robot, fulfillment centers all over the world are gaining an edge with Covariant AI Robotics.
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Our newest update demonstrates the Scaling Law in action, with RFM-1 now generating images at 400% higher resolution than previously. This higher resolution leads to more accurate AI predictions and fewer hallucinations. Check out RFM-1's enhanced ability to predict how a scene
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Our Robotic Foundation Model, RFM-1, transforms robots from rigid to responsive, — empowering our systems to seamlessly adjust behavior on the fly.
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Don't miss @therobotbrains episode 3! . Listen in to hear @pabbeel and @ylecun discuss the future of #artificialIntelligence and the role #AI plays at @Facebook. . @facebookai
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Last year, we participated in ABB's global AI competition, completing a series of 26 picking challenges. Today, we're excited to announce our partnership with @ABBRobotics to bring AI-enabled robotics solutions to market!
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Short videos don’t really show the long-tail complexities that our customers care about. So how about an-hour-plus video of a robotic station we deployed with Knapp! (Sped up at 10x for your viewing convenience 🍿🍿🍿).
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Our robot adapts its grasping approach for fragile or open packaging, and dynamically adjusts its speeds and movements without step-by-step programming.
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Transparent spray bottles and delicate glass candles? No challenge for our robots. Our Robotic Foundation Model’s generalized and extensive training enables Covariant Brain-powered robots to adapt to new products without specialized programming.
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No more hardcoded solutions, just adaptive AI that picks and places your diverse and ever-changing item mix with ease. Watch how the Covariant Brain’s high-precision visualization revolutionizes apparel handling.
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Billions have been invested into automating the “feet” of facilities. Now, industry leaders worldwide are turning to the Covariant Brain to automate the “hands” of their operations. Our AI platform empowers robots to perceive their environment dynamically, handling nuanced
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1/3 BBC Panorama interviewed AI pioneers and industry leaders, including Covariant’s Chief Scientist @pabbeel to unpack this moment for AI and its impact on society.
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Thrilled to announce our $80M Series C led by @IndexVentures along with the participation of @AmplifyPartners, @RadicalVCFund, @Temasek, and @CPPInvestments. Read more here: #AIRobotics.
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AI Robotics enables instant scaling for brands like MERIT and @AlastinSkincare at 3PL, Capacity. From midnight launches to holiday rushes, the warehouse meets peak demand without extra staff.
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We are excited to announce our funding of $75M to meet growing demand for increased warehouse efficiency and resilience through AI-powered robotic automation.
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Congrats to our partner @ABBRobotics!.
IRB390 FlexPacker™ is #ABB‘s new delta robot enabling the picking & packing #flexibility needed for order fulfilment & #retail logistics. Launching later in 2020, it'll enhance ABB robot portfolio & help retailers as they embrace #omnichannel strategies.
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2021 was quite the year for AI robotics. While the number of milestones is too long to list here, we’re especially proud of our AI Robotic Putwall (seen below) winning a product of the year award from @modernmhmag and @mathandling247. Happy new year!
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This week at @FortuneMagazine's #BrainstormAI, Covariant’s own, @pabbeel explains our approach to building our generalized #AI platform, the Covariant Brain. And how this #foundationmodel provides more robust pick and place performance across all industries.
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“It has spent years gathering data — from cameras and other sensors — that shows how these robots operate[.] By combining that data with the huge amounts of text used to train chatbots like ChatGPT, the company has built A.I. technology that gives its robots a much broader
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Honored to share that Covariant won the Visionary Award in @svrobo's Good Robot Industry Awards!
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Intelligent picks and perfect fits. Our robots adapt to any product with precision and efficiency.
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(1/2) We break down our team's recently published paper on navigating uncertain scenarios when it comes to 3D Bounding Boxes – the imaginary boxes our vision system uses for object detection in a tote. Read more:
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Dive in to RFM-1's latest scaling update: In-context learning.
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Want to learn more about #reinforcementlearning for industrial #AI? @pabbeel sits down with @twimlai to discuss this, along with his goals for @CovariantAI. Listen along here: #artificialintelligence #deeplearning #industrialAI.
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Much of the groundbreaking advancements we've witnessed over the past decade, spanning from computer vision, speech recognition, protein folding prediction, and beyond, hinge on the deep learning work conducted by @geoffreyhinton, who has fundamentally changed the focus and
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Covariant robots are deployed across continents, optimizing logistics operations for businesses worldwide.
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“Covariant’s technology has absolutely given us an edge. When prospective clients ask us about our ability to handle unexpected spikes, our answer is twofold — elite tech combined with an incredible team of ops specialists and engineers.” - Karim Fofana, COO at Capacity
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Breaking News - @CovariantAI named one of the most innovative #artificialintelligence startups by @cbinsights. Check out the fifth annual AI 100 List >>
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@pabbeel on why a #foundationmodel trained on millions of objects from grocery to apparel to pharma – performs best compared to #AI systems specialized for a single industry. Listen to the full chat with @alexandr_wang of @scale_AI on @therobotbrains:
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How do you build #AI that can understand and adapt to the world? This is one of the many challenges that we need to solve while building #RealWorldRobotics. Listen in to the new episode of @therobotbrains with our CEO @peterxichen here:
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Three pioneers shaping the future of AI. Jensen Huang, CEO of @nvidia, joins @pabbeel and @peterxichen at Covariant HQ to see firsthand how robotic foundation models are transforming global eCommerce operations.
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Excited to share that the Covariant Brain - our universal AI for robots - has been included in @PopSci's list of the 100 greatest innovations of 2020! .
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It’s peak season for pumpkin picking! We thought one of our robots could help. So we bought a pile of pumpkins and made this fun video! 🎃. #happyhalloween #warehouseautomation
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Q: How do you determine the best AI brain for your robots?. A: A well designed and executed performance based assessment is the most reliable and efficient way to test critical #AI capabilities in the context of your own #logistics operations.
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Excited to share that Covariant was listed as one of the top tech companies enabling industry automation with A.I and robotics integration in @Inc's Top Business & Technology Trends for 2021! @anis_uzzaman.
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We are breaking new ground together. Happy National Robotics Week. #roboweek #nationalroboticsweek
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In Ep. 20 of @therobotbrains podcast, @drfeifei joins our Chief Scientist, @pabbeel as she discusses her career and involvement with #ImageNet and #AlexNet breakthroughs which helped take AI from academia to the real world! 🌎. Full Episode on Spotify ⬇️.
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Hear from @pabbeel: Our robots get things done, no matter how much variation you throw at them.
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Geoffrey Hinton is arguably the most important person in modern AI history. It's only fitting that @therobotbrains Season 2 wraps up with @pabbeel welcoming @geoffreyhinton in a special 2-part episode, including a Q&A sourced directly from Twitter.
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Building a truly general AI for robotics must be done in the real world. To make this happen, our focus lies in addressing critical issues and delivering true value to our customers. During the recent #NvidiaGTC2024, @peterxichen highlighted how generative AI is reshaping the
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From picking groceries to pharmaceuticals, @pabbeel breaks down why generalized AI outperforms specialized models. Instead of building a niche solution, Covariant’s approach builds one AI that delivers superior performance across industries and use cases.
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With over 219,210 research citations, our research team is at the forefront of AI Robotics innovation, setting a new standard for what Robotics Foundation Models can achieve. They're actively developing breakthrough technologies to solve the toughest warehouse operations
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Following the journey from a PhD student in @pabbeel’s lab to co-founding OpenAI and leading the development of ChatGPT — hear from @johnschulman2 on @therobotbrains on how #ChatGPT is built.
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Listen to @Covariant Co-Founder @pabbeel and @abigailhingwen discuss how #AI enables #robots to learn and adapt to the world around them. #iamintel #podcast @intel.
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In AI Robotics, achieving 99% reliability—where human intervention is needed less than 1% of the time—is the critical threshold separating commercially viable solutions from costly experiments. The true measure of an autonomous solution lies in its ability to function not just.
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Electrical supply wholesaler Obeta packs 1000s of orders each day w/ the @KNAPP_AG_de Pick-It-Easy Robot powered by Covariant. "It's become an integral part of our warehouse operations - we can depend on it to do its job," says Obeta. Full case study ⤵️.
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Have you seen the Covariant Brain in action? . Check out the latest demo video of the @KNAPP_AG_en Pick-it-Easy Robot, Powered by Covariant. #supplychain #robotics #realworldrobotics .
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RFM-1 is a Robotics Foundation Model trained on a vast amount of multimodal data rich in physical real-world interactions and general internet data.
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Rocky’s visionary research and leadership have delivered critical breakthroughs in the field of AI and Robotics. Congratulations @rocky_duan on 2024 @Forbes' 30 Under 30!
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How do you build #AI for the real-world?. Our Founders, @peterxichen and @pabbeel sit down on the new episode of @therobotbrains to discuss the various challenges they face while building #robots that can think, learn, and make decisions autonomously. #RealWorldRobotics
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The AI Robotic Revolution is here. And it’s not like what you’ve seen in the movies. @Forbes sat down with @peterxichen to walk through Covariant’s journey scaling breakthrough AI Robotics to pioneer a pragmatic revolution that is redefining how we work.
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“We believe there will be a huge breadth of robotic form factors. Different types of hardware for different use cases— this all depends on frequency, speed, cost of installation, etc." - @peterxichen at @NVIDIAGTC.
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Want to know how #AI #drones from @zipline are reshaping Africa with on-demand medicine delivery? Check out Episode 6 of @therobotbrains #podcast with @pabbeel and @keenanwyrobek ⬇️. Listen in here: #robotics #artificialintelligence #digitalhealth
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At just 21, Rocky Duan became one of @OpenAI's early hires, pushing boundaries on #reinforcementlearning, and imitation learning. At 23, he went on co-found Covariant bringing breakthrough ML concepts to robotic automation for #warehousing, where he continues to serve as CTO.
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These are the AI startups to watch in 2024 - @Bloomberg. We're honored to be featured as a leading company pioneering AI for the physical world.
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Why do you need cutting-edge AI for real world robotics? 🤖. ➡️🎧 Listen to Episode 7 of @therobotbrains podcast with 2 of our co-founders, @pabbeel and @peterxichen to learn more!. See the link to the full episode in the comments below. #RealWorldRobotics #AI #Robots
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Interested to learn how @Etsy approaches AI and computer vision? In the latest episode of @therobotbrains, @pabbeel interviews Etsy CTO, @MikeFisher_Fish . Watch it here: or check it out on your favorite podcasting platform!.
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Check out @pabbeel’s recent interview w/ our investment partner @radicalvcfund, as they discuss his transition from the academic to the start-up world, and the big unsolved problems which AI can (and will) disrupt. #artificialintelligence #robotics.
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Excited to share a new project from @Covariant cofounder @pabbeel. Introducing the Robot Brains Podcast! . Season 1 launches today on your favorite podcast platforms. Don't miss the first episode w/ @karpathy, Director of AI and Autopilot Vision @Tesla .
Very excited to share the launch of my new podcast, The Robot Brains. The first episode was just released. My first guest is brilliant AI researcher, educator, and Director of AI and Autopilot Vision at Tesla @karpathy!.
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RFM-1 allows robots and human operators or engineers to communicate in a simple, intuitive manner. To do so, they must be taskable, comprehend language, and learn from self-reflection.
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Doing what we do best – picking and placing – precisely. Interested in your own personalized demo? Reach out! We would love to #pick your items in our Bay Area or London offices.
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No two apples are made the same. Each tote will be filled differently. Variability is guaranteed. Rediscover this @therobotbrains episode where @peterxichen and @pabbeel discuss co-founding Covariant to enable #industrialrobots to adapt to ever-changing environments.
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Mistakes happen, even for robots. But it’s all about the comeback. Our robot's quick recovery is a result of the Covariant Brain's ability to recognize the situation and determine a solution – see it in action.
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In a recent @techreview article, @_KarenHao provides a number of insights on how #AIRobotics and #DeepLearning are making a major impact on #warehouses around the world. 🤖🦾.
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Check out this article by @radicalvcfund for the latest AI robotics news + insights. We're also excited to continue to push the boundaries of #AI Robotics with their support! 🙌.
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Excited to share this new video from our partner @KNAPP_AG_de featuring our joint solution, the Pick-It-Easy Robot! #itworks.
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Millions of SKUs .Billions of data points .One Covariant Brain
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This repersents a remarkable leap forward toward building generalized AI models that can accurately simulate and operate in the demanding conditions of the physical world, like warehouse environments.
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🔊 Check out to Ep. 12 of @therobotbrains with @pabbeel and @isbellHFh as they discuss the challenge and importance of bringing ethics & diversity into #AI as it is now impacting society, and is expanding beyond just academics and research. #ethicalAI #machinelearning
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Robot reels on repeat. The new go-to place to experience AI robots in action – from Kentucky warehouses to Berlin, and the latest research emerging from our California-based lab.
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This week, @pabbeel welcomes returning guest and “Godfather of AI,” @geoffreyhinton to @therobotbrains, to discuss his departure from Google to speak freely about the risks of AI, regulating AI that is smarter than humans – and remind us of the tremendous good #AI will do.
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See the interview of @TAStinson in latest @DCVelocity.
Now's the time to start looking at how #AI and #robotics could help #supplychain operations, says @CovariantAI's Ted Stinson. "Look past the marketing and the demos," he says. "Ultimately, we need to be solving the challenges in the real world." Read more:
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Covariant has been named the 2022, Best Overall Robotics Company by the @AI_Breakthrough awards, which recognize the top companies, technologies and products in AI today. The list is full of good company, and we’re honored to be here!.
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Interested in hearing about the origin story of Covariant, current challenges with building AI for robots, or robotic startups in general? Check out @pabbeel on the new episode of Gradient Dissent by @weights_biases, hosted by @l2k.
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