Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind partners on AI-powered Atlas robots (scienceclock.com)

At CES 2026, Boston Dynamics unveiled a production-ready version of its Atlas humanoid robot and announced a strategic partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate advanced AI capabilities into its robotics systems. This collaboration will leverage DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics AI foundation models, enabling Atlas to perform a diverse range of industrial tasks, particularly in the automotive sector, marking a transformative shift in manufacturing processes. The significance of this partnership lies in the potential to enhance the operational effectiveness of humanoid robots through advanced visual-language-action models. With Atlas’s ability to autonomously navigate and adapt to changing environments, and DeepMind’s expertise in large-scale, multi-modal AI models, the two companies aim to create robots that not only understand their surroundings but also interact dynamically with humans and tools. This initiative could reshape the robotics industry, making robots more capable and versatile across various applications, from manufacturing to everyday tasks, and laying the groundwork for a future where robots seamlessly integrate into daily life.