AI startup raises $10 million to build robotics operating system

An AI startup building ‘Windows for robots’ has raised $10 million

The funding for Metacognition AI came from CSIRO-backed deep tech VC Main Sequence. The raise was first reported by Capital Brief.

AI researcher Anton van den Hengel, the chief scientist of the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, cofounded the startup this year with Stephen Gould, and Paul Dalby.

Metacognition says it “will transform the AI revolution, leading to more capable and safer AI agents that are more personalised to their user. It will provide the missing software platform that finally enables robot hardware to be trained to do useful tasks by non-experts with simple verbal instructions and feedback”.

Robots will work alongside humans, remembering instructions and improving their performance as they interact with their environment via the Metacognition, as users teach the agents specific tasks

This operating system for AI agents, sits underneath large language models, controlling how they interact with machinery and other systems.

The startup is initially targeting existing industrial systems. It has built simulations in which operators can direct an open-cut mine or manage an electricity grid by speaking to the system. Its team of eight is expanding and hiring AI researchers.