Hugging Face launches robot app store
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Hugging Face's Reachy Mini robot, in various hues. Image: Hugging Face
Open-source AI platform Hugging Face will formally launch an app store Wednesday for its Reachy Mini robot, CEO Clément Delangue tells Axios.
Why it matters: The goal is to help nontechnical people create customized uses for the open-source robot, Delangue said.
Driving the news: Hugging Face already has around 200 apps in the store, which are designed to be easily downloaded or modified.
- Among those is an office receptionist app that Delangue said he built in less than two hours.
- Others include baby monitor-style apps, cooking assistants and a distraction tracker that watches you while you're working and alerts you if you get distracted.
- Anyone can add their app to the store and Hugging Face's "ML intern" agent, released last week, can be used to quickly generate and refine apps, Delangue said.
What they're saying: "Our goal is to make it so that everyone can build for their own use cases," Delangue said in an interview.
- "The most important thing right now for AI is that it doesn't only get to be built by a few people in Silicon Valley."
The big picture: Consumer robots are having a renaissance, thanks to AI.
- Some large language models are used to train the robots or to give them a conversational interface.
- This week, the former CEO of iRobot debuted a plush robot dog that could serve as a companion for older adults, among other uses.
By the numbers: Hugging Face says there are now around 10,000 of its Reachy Mini devices in the hands of customers or on the way, with 3,000 being shipped last week.
- The robot ranges from $299 to $449 for the version that runs untethered to a computer.
What we're watching: Whether the combination of a relatively low price and an app store could propel the Reachy Mini beyond tech enthusiast tinkerers.
