Mecka AI raises $60 million to train robots with human data sourced from body sensors and iPhones

(Credit: Courtesy of Mecka AI)

Data is the oil of the AI boom—and the startup Mecka AI hopes to tap the vast reservoir of hand gestures, walking gaits, and immense collection of humanity’s physical motions to better train our future overlords: robots.

So-called “embodied” AI data isn’t exactly novel. Wayve, the British autonomous driving company, has trained its models on visual input pulled from car cameras. And, on Friday, the startup MicroAGI announced that it was offering New Yorkers a free home cleaning—if they consented to cameras recording the cleaners’ every action.