Academic Roots & Google Robotics Leadership
Karol Hausman completed his PhD at the University of Southern California (USC), developing reinforcement learning paradigms for robots. At Google Brain and DeepMind, he led robotics teams that pioneered SayCan and RT-2, bridging language models with robotic action.
The Inception of Physical Intelligence
In 2024, Hausman joined forces with Lachy Groom, Sergey Levine, and Chelsea Finn to found Physical Intelligence in San Francisco, attracting backing from OpenAI, Khosla Ventures, and Jeff Bezos.
The Universal ฯ0 Model
Physical Intelligence introduced ฯ0 (pi-zero), a physical foundation model capable of folding laundry, assembling cardboard boxes, and handling novel kitchen tasks without task-specific engineering.
