Though the effort is still in the beginning stages — and it’s unclear if the products will ultimately be released — Apple is under growing pressure to find new sources of revenue.
The Apple logo hangs in front of an Apple store on March 21, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. Apple Inc. has teams investigating a push into personal robotics, a field with the potential to become one of the company’s ever-shifting “next big things,” according to people familiar with the situation.
The robotics work is happening within Apple’s hardware engineering division and its AI and machine-learning group, which is run by John Giannandrea. Matt Costello and Brian Lynch — two executives focused on home products — have overseen the hardware development. Still, Apple hasn’t committed to either project as a company, and the work is still considered to be in the early research phase. A spokeswoman declined to comment.
But the company has been concerned about whether consumers would be willing to pay top dollar for such a device. There have also been technical challenges related to balancing the weight of a robotic motor on a small stand. The primary obstacle has been disagreement among Apple executives over whether to move forward with the product at all, according to the people.
Artificial intelligence is another major focus, even if Apple is playing catch-up in the realm of chatbots and other generative technology. That’s where there could be some overlap with the robotics work. While still in the earliest stages, Apple AI researchers are investigating the use of algorithms to help bots navigate cluttered spaces within people’s homes.
At the time, Field tapped a series of executives to work on robotics initiatives, ranging from nearly silent indoor drones to home robots. The group included Lynch; Nick Sims, a former Google home products manager; and Dave Scott, who left Apple in 2021 to briefly run a mobile MRI machine company and then returned in 2022 to work on the Vision Pro. Hanns Wolfram Tappeiner, the co-founder of AI and robotics company Anki, is also involved.
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