Artificial intelligence startup, Intrinsic Innovation LLC, has announced its integration with Google LLC, a significant milestone coming only five years after its separation from Alphabet Inc.’s “Moonshot Factory”. Intrinsic, which specializes in physical AI, is optimistic that this new partnership will substantially enhance its work in edge AI, spanning research and development, deployment, and daily operations. This step opens new avenues for industrial applications in manufacturing and logistics. Detailed financial aspects of this transaction remain undisclosed. Source.
As a distinct entity within Google, Intrinsic will continue to nurture the Intrinsic platform, leveraging Google’s Gemini models and Google Cloud, and working closely with Google DeepMind. Wendy Tan White, the incumbent CEO of Intrinsic, will maintain her position, reporting to Hiroshi Lockheimer, director of products of Other Bets at Google. The rest of the unit’s reporting and management team remains intact.
Intrinsic’s Vision and Partnerships
Intrinsic’s CEO, Wendy Tan White, expressed her excitement about the merger, “The Intrinsic team has been working relentlessly to democratize access to intelligent robotics through our platform. By joining forces with Google’s exceptional AI and infrastructure, we can unlock the promise of physical AI for a far-reaching set of manufacturing companies and developers. This will fundamentally alter production dynamics, from economics to operations, paving the way for truly advanced manufacturing.”
Since its inception, Intrinsic has formed strategic alliances with leading companies. Notably, it partnered with Foxconn last year to create an AI-driven smart factory of the future, integrating Intrinsic’s AI robotics platform with Foxconn’s electronics manufacturing proficiency. Moving forward, Intrinsic and Google plan to incorporate AI, robotics, and digital twins into modular automation. Intrinsic will also continue to collaborate with Foxconn and its other existing partners.
Evolution of the Flowstate Platform
Intrinsic is the creator of Flowstate, a web-based development environment and simulation engine. Flowstate enables users to construct applications using ready-to-use “building blocks of robotic behaviors” referred to as skills. These skills can either be developed manually or AI-enabled, eliminating the need for deep expertise or extensive programming. With just a few clicks, users can initiate intelligent robotic applications, transitioning from simulation to actual production in significantly less time.
Intrinsic has plans to continually evolve this platform. Flowstate is designed to be software, hardware, bot, and AI agnostic, providing developers with the flexibility to construct the right system with the appropriate assets for the job. The company claims that its industrial-grade operating system will work in harmony with Google’s AI research.
“At Google, we see the immense opportunity to bridge the gap between the digital and physical world – this is also true for intelligent robotics in industries like manufacturing and logistics,” Lockheimer said. “We’re excited to welcome the Intrinsic team to Google, so we can bring game-changing AI to more businesses and industries, at scale.”
Since its inception in 2021, Intrinsic has grown both its internal R&D and through acquisitions. In 2022, Intrinsic acquired Open Source Robotics Corp. (OSRC). It is the for-profit arm of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), the organization behind the Robot Operating System (ROS).
