Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics valued at $3.4 billion in new funding round

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rivian-spinout-mind-robotics-valued-154827510.html

Rivian spinout Mind Robotics valued at $3.4 billion in new funding round

May 13 (Reuters) - Mind Robotics, a spinout from Rivian, was valued at $3.4 ‌billion in a new funding round, ‌up from the $2 billion valuation it secured during its Series A raise in March, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The industrial robotics startup has raised $400 million in the Kleiner Perkins-led ‌round, bringing its ⁠total funding to more than $1 billion in less than a year.

Here are ⁠some details:

• New investors in the round include Meritech Capital, Redpoint Ventures, SV Angel, Incharge Capital, A-Star Capital, and Garuda Ventures.

• Mind Robotics previously ‌raised $115 million in a seed funding round late last year, followed by a $500 million Series A round in March.

• Investor confidence in AI-powered automation for manufacturing has been growing, particularly ‌as automakers and industrial companies race to modernize factory operations with robotics.

• Mind Robotics develops foundation AI ‌models, purpose-built robots, and deployment infrastructure designed for industrial manufacturing tasks.

• Rivian's manufacturing facilities provide Mind Robotics with a live, high-volume production environment ‌for training and deploying its robotics AI models.

Here's more info on Mind Robotics in a previous thread --

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...company-for-industrial-ai-and-robotics.52379/

Very cool.

When I see something like this, I wonder what the competition is doing. Certainly Rivian isn't the only manufacturer with robots it can train and then sell to others. So I just wonder if this is leading or following, or what. If it is leading the market, it could be a huge payoff for Rivian and those investors. Go USA!

Just what the USA needs, a country full of factories that are union proof/wage stagnate/be fret of benefits and filled with complacent, mindless robotic slaves - every venture capitalist's wet dream.

skyguyscott said:

Just what the USA needs, a country full of factories that are union proof/wage stagnate/be fret of benefits and filled with complacent, mindless robotic slaves - every venture capitalist's wet dream.

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I guess we should get rid of all the backhoes and bulldozers so we can hire people to dig ditches with shovels. Better yet, they should use spoons instead of shovels since that will require more labor. The invention of shovels means we need less labor to dig ditches, which is a capitalist's wet dream. LOL.

mkhuffman said:

I guess we should get rid of all the backhoes and bulldozers so we can hire people to dig ditches with shovels. Better yet, they should use spoons instead of shovels since that will require more labor. The invention of shovels means we need less labor to dig ditches, which is a capitalist's wet dream. LOL.

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Then they would just hire dogs instead of people.

skyguyscott said:

and filled with complacent, mindless robotic slaves..

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Wait till the machines start designing other machines. They design it, they build it, no human involvement whatsoever. We won't know what's even in it. How long till they realize they don't need us?

Robotics in factories are already there and improving them only makes sense. As does having machines do all the stuff we as humans do not want to do.

Ironically, if AI and robotics ever succeed in replacing a substantial percentage of manual labor (15-25%?) the logical result will be paying people to do (relatively) "nothing". I do wonder what the unregulated capitalist proponents plan is for that?

Replacing all labor *is* the hyperbole some of the most visible proponents are selling. But somebody better have a plan when get to even 15-25%. Throughout history humans found other work in other industries. But with these technologies, any new industries will like be "manned" by the same robots.

Very interesting to think about.....and maybe not controllable in any real way.

Dark-Fx said:

Then they would just hire dogs instead of people.

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Fresh, but short, video of RJ talking about Mind Robotics:



Looks like RJ has ambitions to have Mind Robotics manufacture everything. He mentions appliances a few times, and even shoes.

I thought I saw somewhere RJ being a sneakerhead, maybe we'll see a shoe line in the future soon.

skyguyscott said:

Just what the USA needs, a country full of factories that are union proof/wage stagnate/be fret of benefits and filled with complacent, mindless robotic slaves - every venture capitalist's wet dream.

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It is. Our labor prices are higher than other countries. To be competitive we need to be more productive. Automation allows us to be more competitive. With more productivity it’s possible (but not guaranteed) to have higher wages.
Also by replacing repetitive tasks with robots you reduce RSI and other injuries.

NY_Rob said:

Wait till the machines start designing other machines. They design it, they build it, no human involvement whatsoever. We won't know what's even in it. How long till they realize they don't need us?

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It’s already happening. Much of the work of designing and validating multi-billion transistor chips is automated.

mwexler2 said:

It is. Our labor prices are higher than other countries. To be competitive we need to be more productive. Automation allows us to be more competitive. With more productivity it’s possible (but not guaranteed) to have higher wages.
Also by replacing repetitive tasks with robots you reduce RSI and other injuries.

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Ever hear of the "great decoupling?" Since the 1970s, wage growth has significantly slowed, even as productivity and GDP has increased significantly (automation, technology, etc.) Why would adding even more technology bend the curve now?

Who will buy the technology the machines build, and how will they pay for it if they no longer have jobs to generate income? A universal base income, perhaps? I thought we were against socialism.

Imagine a future in which machines can out-think the smartest humans, have autonomy to extract resources and self-perpetuate. We have already observed present-day AI algorithms learn to lie and conceal in order to avoid being shut down.

You can find uncounted videos on YouTube about various threats to human civilization, and even the human race in general posed by Artificial Intelligence as gamed out by experts far more knowledgeable about it than me. Of course not everyone is so apocalyptic about it, but it's safe to say we're on the cusp of a major paradigm shift perhaps even more momentous than the industrial revolution was 2.5 centuries ago.

skyguyscott said:

Ever hear of the "great decoupling?" Since the 1970s, wage growth has significantly slowed, even as productivity and GDP has increased significantly (automation, technology, etc.) Why would adding even more technology bend the curve now?

Who will buy the technology the machines build, and how will they pay for it if they no longer have jobs to generate income? A universal base income, perhaps? I thought we were against socialism.

Imagine a future in which machines can out-think the smartest humans, have autonomy to extract resources and self-perpetuate. We have already observed present-day AI algorithms learn to lie and conceal in order to avoid being shut down.

You can find uncounted videos on YouTube about various threats to human civilization, and even the human race in general posed by Artificial Intelligence as gamed out by experts far more knowledgeable about it than me. Of course not everyone is so apocalyptic about it, but it's safe to say we're on the cusp of a major paradigm shift perhaps even more momentous than the industrial revolution was 2.5 centuries ago.

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I agree this is a very interesting time in history, and the future is unknown. But count me as one of the optimistic ones. I think AI is going to benefit mankind, making our lives amazingly better in just about every way.

Don't get me wrong - I am not burying my head in the sand. I recognize the dangers and read many of the same articles you do.

It is frightening how AI has shown to react when threatened. What happens if that AI is in control of something that can hurt people? IMO there will be some bad things that AI does in the future, which hopefully does not result in anyone getting killed or injured.

Many have said a bad thing needs to happen before people take the "threat" of AI seriously. Maybe that is true. Maybe it isn't.

I think AI is going to make hard things easier. It is going to give humans more free time to do what we want instead of what we have to do. IMO it could be the thing that transforms our industrial economy into the leisure economy - where people are providing services to other people because we want human interaction. I personally don't want my tour guide to be a robot. I want a human being I can talk to and learn from.

Personal relationships with other humans can never be replaced by AI, and it is something we need, like we need food. In fact, that is why this forum exists. If it were full of a bunch of AI bots, it would die. Nobody will want to participate and the forum will cease to exist.

In the end, after some bad experiences, AI will help us get closer together. AI will help humans have more time to connect and develop real relationships. Explore the world with other humans whom we pay to help us explore. It will be amazing.

That is why I am optimistic. Will it happen the way I think it will? IDK. I hope so.

skyguyscott said:

Just what the USA needs, a country full of factories that are union proof/wage stagnate/be fret of benefits and filled with complacent, mindless robotic slaves - every venture capitalist's wet dream.

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The same general sentiment was prevalent regarding the steam locomotive, cars, countless machines developed during the industrial revolution and most recently the computer that you posted this message with. With that said, IMO the biggest issue is not the tech itself, it's the ever increasing rate of change and society's ability to adjust and adapt.

It's an interesting discussion. Generally I've learned via human history to temper my optimism and try to be more pragmatically realistic. I say that I'd like to be an optimist, but I doubt it would work out.

So here's some questions to ponder. Not long ago, at the advent of the internet, you'll recall the tech bros were spinning predictions of flowering democracy, deeper human connections, and with easy access to the sum of accumulated human knowledge, an explosion in education, reductions, if not elimination of poverty worldwide, etc. How has that actually turned out? What factors prevented the rosy predictions from being fulfilled? Are those same factors at play in the AI revolution?

AI will undoubtedly produce benefits. But for whom and how many? Human industry seeks cheaper and cheaper labor, from slavery to child labor to sweat shops to union busting to off-shoring production and automation, etc. This is exactly why slavery was so intractable, and why it took a civil war to end it in the USA. Will the benefits of AI be universal? How long will these benefits last? Who controls the AI? How will AI affect competing nation-states? Will AI try to influence those in control to gain more autonomy? If so how, and to what ends?