Boston Dynamics taps Amazon AI veteran to lead physical AI push
Rohit Prasad / Courtesy of Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics has named Rohit Prasad, an artificial intelligence (AI) veteran who helped build Alexa and lead Amazon’s foundation-model efforts, as its new chief executive officer as it moves to fuse AI with advanced robotics.
Prasad, who joins the company Wednesday, will lead Boston Dynamics’ push to commercialize intelligent robots and expand physical AI applications across industries, the company said.
Before joining Boston Dynamics, Prasad spent 12 years at Amazon, where he served as senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa and artificial general intelligence.
He joined Amazon in 2013 during Alexa’s early development and later led work on Amazon Nova, a family of foundation models developed for generative AI applications.
Prasad previously spent nearly 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies, where he worked on machine-learning research and applications for government and commercial customers.
Boston Dynamics said Prasad’s experience turning AI research into products, platforms and business ecosystems would help accelerate commercialization of intelligent robotic systems.
The company said his appointment would also strengthen its ability to combine robotics and AI and expand applications for physical AI in real-world industrial settings.
Prasad has spent more than 25 years in the Boston area and has built longstanding relationships across its technology and research community, which Boston Dynamics said could aid efforts to recruit talent and deepen partnerships.
Prasad said Boston Dynamics was uniquely positioned to advance physical AI through its robotics expertise and that he was honored to join the company at an important moment for the industry.
He said he plans to combine advanced AI and robotics to build intelligent systems that create value in real-world environments and broaden robotics’ reach across industries.
Boston Dynamics is part of Hyundai Motor Group, whose manufacturing, logistics and mobility operations could provide settings for testing and deploying AI-powered robotics, according to the company.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.