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Robotics Startup Genesis AI Launches With $105 Million in Funding

Published

2 months ago

July 2, 2025

Robotics startup Genesis AI emerged from stealth with $105 million in seed funding.

Genesis AI aims to create a general-purpose artificial intelligence model that will allow robots to automate a range of repetitive tasks, TechCrunch reported Tuesday (July 1). The company’s funding round was co-led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures.

While large language models are trained on vast datasets of text, AI models for robotics need to be trained using data about the physical world, the report said. However, acquiring that real-world data is time-consuming and expensive, leading Genesis to rely on synthetic data, which it creates with a physics engine it said can model the physical world.

Genesis said its proprietary simulation engine lets it build models faster, giving it an edge over rivals who rely on Nvidia’s software, according to the report.

“It’s a big unknown: Will anybody have a large robotics foundation model that will generalize across tasks?” said Kanu Gulati, a partner at Khosla Ventures, per the report. “That’s a bet we want to go after.”

“Of all the teams we have seen, we like [Genesis’] approach for going after robotics foundation models,” she added, according to the report.

In other robotics news, Amazon now has more than 1 million robots working in its warehouses and will soon have as many robots as humans in these facilities.

In May, Amazon unveiled Vulcan, a robot designed with a sense of touch that allows it to pick up products from shelves. The company has also been trying to integrate its robots into its fulfillment operations, so machines can work together and with humans.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS earlier this year examined the challenges in introducing humanoid robots in a conversation with Jenny Shern, general manager at robot builder NexCOBOT.

“Traditional industrial robotic arms with vision systems primarily rely on preprogrammed instructions to execute tasks,” Shern said. “This works well in factory environments where applications are repetitive and goal-oriented.”

However, “implementing humanoid robots into household settings is a more complex advancement because, unlike factories, household environments are highly dynamic, and tasks will vary significantly from one home to another,” she added.

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General Counsel’s Job Changing as More Companies Adopt AI

Published

1 hour ago

September 11, 2025

The Editors

The general counsel’s role is evolving to include more conversations around policy and business direction, as more companies deploy artificial intelligence, panelists at a University of California Berkeley conference said Thursday.

“We are not just lawyers anymore. We are driving a lot of the policy conversations, the business conversations, because of the geopolitical issues going on and because of the regulatory, or lack thereof, framework for products and services,” said Lauren Lennon, general counsel at Scale AI, a company that uses data to train AI systems.

Scattered regulation and fraying international alliances are also redefining the general counsel’s job, panelists …

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California bill regulating companion chatbots advances to Senate

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1 hour ago

September 11, 2025

The Editors

The California State Assembly approved legislation Tuesday that would place new safeguards on artificial intelligence-powered chatbots to better protect children and other vulnerable users.

Introduced in July by state Sen. Steve Padilla, Senate Bill 243 requires companies that operate chatbots marketed as “companions” to avoid exposing minors to sexual content, regularly remind users that they are speaking to an AI and not a person, as well as disclose that chatbots may not be appropriate for minors.

The bill passed the Assembly with bipartisan support and now heads to California’s Senate for a final vote.

“As we strive for innovation, we cannot forget our responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us,” Padilla said in statement. “Safety must be at the heart of all developments around this rapidly changing technology. Big Tech has proven time and again, they cannot be trusted to police themselves.”

The push for regulation comes as tragic instances of minors harmed by chatbot interactions have made national headlines. Last year, Adam Raine, a teenager in California, died by suicide after allegedly being encouraged by OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT. In Florida, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer formed an emotional relationship with a chatbot on the platform Character.ai before taking his own life.

A March study by the MIT Media Lab examining the relationship between AI chatbots and loneliness found that higher daily usage correlated with increased loneliness, dependence and “problematic” use, a term that researchers used to characterize addiction to using chatbots. The study revealed that companion chatbots can be more addictive than social media, due to their ability to figure out what users want to hear and provide that feedback.

Setzer’s mother, Megan Garcia, and Raine’s parents have filed separate lawsuits against Character.ai and OpenAI, alleging that the chatbots’ addictive and reward-based features did nothing to intervene when both teens expressed thoughts of self-harm.

The California legislation also mandates companies program AI chatbots to respond to signs of suicidal thoughts or self-harm, including directing users to crisis hotlines, and requires annual reporting on how the bots affect users’ mental health. The bill allows families to pursue legal action against companies that fail to comply.

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