OpenAI has hired the former head of Meta’s Orion AR glasses initiative as the new lead for the startup’s robotics and consumer hardware efforts.
On Monday, Caitlin Kalinowski, aka CK, announced her new position on LinkedIn and her X account. She wrote, “In my new role, I will initially focus on OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity.”
Furthermore, she shared that her first day at the new job is November 5th.
OpenAI might be moving into hardware with this latest hiring
OpenAI shot into the limelight with the launch of its famous ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022 to immediate success, but the new hiring trend seems to show that the company is now diversifying into building and selling hardware.
The firm has been aggressive behind the scenes as it partnered with former Apple executive Jony Ive, who was part of the team that designed some of Apple’s most iconic products from the iMac to the iPhone to produce OpenAI’s AI device.
Kalinowski officially began her job at OpenAI on Tuesday, November 5, according to her LinkedIn post.
She said the company and its chatbot – ChatGPT have already revolutionized the world by making people gather and interact with information as well as deliver meaningful benefits around the world. She also said AI is currently the most reverting engineering move in tech and therefore she could not be more honored than being part of OpenAI.
Kalinowski spent just over 10 years working on VR and AR products as she was the Head of VR Hardware during the launch of most Oculus and Meta Quest products. She then became Meta’s Head of AR Glasses Hardware as a contribution to the development of Orion Holographic glasses.
Before this, Kalinowski worked as a Product Design Engineer at Apple between 2008 and 2013.
Kalinowski is a strong proponent of LGBTQ in the tech industry as she is the strategic advisor to Lesbians Who Tech, which is the largest LGBTQ professional network and the biggest women’s tech conference in the world.
OpenAI has been on a hiring spree
The appointment of Kalinowski comes after OpenAI hired Gabor Cselle who co-founded the social media platform Pebble which is now non-functioning. Cselle, like Kalinowski announced his appointment on social media platform X.
Cselle last Friday told his 21,000 X followers that he was going to be part of the OpenAI as he spoke highly of his to-be colleagues, but did not disclose the position he was hired for.
He is a former Twitter, Google, and Yahoo employee and was part of the team that built startups like reMail and Namo media. Two years ago Cselle co-founded Pebble which was to rival X, but the company folded on November 1, 2023.
Since the close of Pebble, he has told his followers on X that he was part of AI projects such as Granola and Choosy Chat.
According to reports, it seems OpenAI has its moves well planned. Kalinowski’s announcement came the same day OpenAI invested in a robot startup based in San Francisco, Physical Intelligence which raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion post-money valuation. OpenAI is part of investors such as Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, Lux Capital, and Bond Capital among others.
Physical Intelligence says its mission is to “bring general purpose AI into the physical world”, and the company wants to achieve this by developing large-scale AI models and algorithms to power robots.
After snatching Sebastien Bubeck from Microsoft in October, these two appointments feel like another win for the OpenAI management. With Bubeck being the VP of AI and Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft, his hiring was seen as an important step in the right direction for OpenAI
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