OpenAI Hires Former Meta AR Glasses Chief to Lead Robotics Push
OpenAI brings on Caitlin Kalinowski, the former hardware lead behind Meta's Orion AR glasses, to spearhead its new robotics and consumer hardware initiatives.
Caitlin Kalinowski, the former hardware lead for Meta’s Orion augmented reality glasses, joins OpenAI to lead its robotics and consumer hardware divisions. She brings nearly a decade of experience from Meta, where she oversees the creation of the impressive Orion prototype, along with a strong background in MacBook hardware design from her time at Apple.
In her new role, Kalinowski focuses primarily on OpenAI’s robotics partnerships to integrate artificial intelligence into the physical world. This move aligns with OpenAI's recent efforts to rebuild its robotics team, which currently helps partner companies incorporate the startup's multimodal AI models into various physical machines and humanoid robots like Figure's 01.
Her hiring also sparks speculation about a potential collaboration with Jony Ive's design firm LoveFrom, as OpenAI and Ive work together to build a less socially disruptive AI hardware device. This strategic hire signals a major shift for OpenAI as it expands beyond software roughly four years after disbanding its original hardware research efforts.