Canada-based Sanctuary AI has just unveiled the latest generation of its revolutionary Phoenix humanoid AI-enabled robot. Now in its 7th generation, the new model features significant upgrades over its previous iteration.

The AI control system, Carbon, has been improved to make the latest generation robot even more similar to a human. Sanctuary AI explains that both hardware and AI software have been enhanced.

This new model has been unveiled in less than a year after the release of its 6th-generation bot and less than 16 months after the launch of its 5th-generation Phoenix in January 2023.

According to Sanctuary AI, the 7th-gen Phoenix is the most sophisticated version. Designed to mimic human behavior as closely as possible, the latest generation has been trained on the highest-quality, highest-fidelity training data.

Phoenix 7 is faster and smarter

As explained in the press release, the latest Phoenix bot benefits from increased uptime, giving it more time to train and capture data. The new robot also features significant hardware upgrades that significantly improve the flexibility of its wrists, hands, and elbows.

Besides, it features miniaturized hydraulics that reduce each Phoenix robot’s weight, power consumption, and complexity. Additionally, Generation 7 Phoenix has much improved visual acuity and tactile sensing.

These improvements enable each unit to learn a new task in as little as 24 hours, compared to weeks for its predecessor. Previous iterations of the Phoenix have mainly focused on the unit’s torso. Generation 6 was among the first to notice the robot’s legs. 

Sanctuary AI recently released footage of what is presumably Phoenix 7’s much-improved dexterity during a colored object-sorting exercise in February of this year.

This footage also showed how the latest iteration of Phoenix was trained using teleoperation by a human “trainer.” Using this data, the robot’s Carbon AI software could learn and replicate the process independently. 

A massive improvement on previous models 

This latest model is a much-needed improvement on this already incredible piece of hardware. The entire range is being billed as an AI-controlled, general-purpose robot that can be used to assist human workers in laborious or repetitive tasks.

Theoretically, this should free up human staff to perform more complex tasks. 

“It’s incredible to see the progress that has been made in just 11 months,” said Geordie Rose, CEO and Co-Founder of Sanctuary AI. 

“With Generation 7, we have a system that we believe is the most closely analogous to a person of any available,” he added.

“We see this as not only the cornerstone of general-purpose AI robotics but a critical step on the path to artificial general intelligence, and we’re thrilled to be leading the charge on it,” Rose added. 

“This all adds up to being able to capture increasing quantities of higher-quality, higher-fidelity human behavioral data, which in turn will expedite the development of foundational AI models and customer deployments,” he concluded.