Google DeepMind Hires Former CTO of Boston Dynamics as the Company Pushes Deeper Into Robotics

Summary

Google DeepMind has appointed Aaron Saunders, the former CTO of Boston Dynamics, as its VP of hardware engineering as the lab moves to deepen its work in robotics. CEO Demis Hassabis envisions DeepMind’s Gemini model evolving into a kind of operating system for robots — analogous to Android for phones — that can run across multiple body configurations, humanoid and non-humanoid alike.

DeepMind has been building robotics research for years and is now intensifying efforts to combine advanced AI control (the “brain”) with physical hardware. Saunders brings hands-on experience with legged and humanoid systems from Boston Dynamics. The hire signals a push to marry DeepMind’s multimodal Gemini models with real-world robot platforms amid rising competition from startups and international manufacturers.

Key Points

Aaron Saunders, former Boston Dynamics CTO, has joined DeepMind as VP of hardware engineering.
Demis Hassabis intends for Gemini to act like a robot operating system that works “out of the box” on different robot bodies.
DeepMind is prioritising software — AI controllers and multimodal models — to enable more capable physical robots.
The hire indicates DeepMind expects a robotics breakthrough in the next few years and is preparing for it.
Competition is heating up: Boston Dynamics (Hyundai), Unitree, Agility Robotics, Figure AI, Tesla and others are advancing legged and humanoid platforms.
Hardware components are more accessible now, lowering barriers and accelerating commercialisation of legged robots.

Context and Relevance

This move matters because it couples DeepMind’s leading AI models with experienced hardware leadership — a combination many see as essential to turning research demos into reliable, usable robots. If Hassabis’s analogy holds, Gemini-as-an-OS could standardise robot software stacks in the same way Android did for smartphones, enabling diverse manufacturers to ship devices with a common intelligence layer.

For readers tracking AI and robotics, this hire highlights several trends: the convergence of large multimodal models with embodied systems; increased hiring of industry hardware veterans by AI labs; and accelerating competition from both Western startups and Chinese manufacturers offering cheaper legged machines. Those developments are likely to speed deployment of robots in industrial, logistics and service roles, and raise fresh questions about safety, standards and commercial scale-up.

Why should I read this?

Short version: DeepMind just poached one of the folks who built the flashy, acrobatic robots you’ve seen online — and they want Gemini to be the “Android” for physical machines. If you care about where AI meets the real world (and who profits or gets disrupted when it does), this is not fluff. It’s a sign the race from models to machines just got more serious.

Source

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/google-hires-cto-boston-dynamics-demis-hassabis-android/