OpenAI hires Meta’s former AR glasses lead to head its robotics team

Caitlin Kalinowski oversaw the creation of Orion, Meta’s prototype AR glasses.

OpenAI has hired Meta’s former hardware lead, according to a LinkedIn post.

Caitlin Kalinowski, who served as Meta’s head of AR glasses hardware until July, said she was joining OpenAI to lead the company’s robotics and consumer hardware efforts.

“In my new role, I will initially focus on OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity,” she said in the post. “Thank you to the OpenAI team, Sam, Kevin Weil, PW, and to my friends and colleagues in engineering and beyond!”

At Meta, Kalinowski oversaw the creation of Orion, Meta’s prototype augmented-reality wearable glasses.

Analysts and consumers have enthusiastically received the glasses, which were unveiled at Meta’s Connect event in September. However, the company has yet to announce an official release date for Orion, which reportedly costs around $10,000 a pair to build.

The hire comes amid signs that OpenAI is reinvesting in its robotics efforts after shuttering the team in 2020.

In May, Forbes reported that OpenAI had been hiring research engineers to rebuild the previously abandoned robotics team, something the company later confirmed.

Per the report, OpenAI plans for the team to build technology that humanoid robot-makers, such as Physical Intelligence, will integrate into their own systems rather than directly competing with them.

The ChatGPT maker is already working on a new AI device startup with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Ive confirmed the collaboration in a profile published by The New York Times in September.

Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17, made outside normal working hours.