Singapore start-up Sapiens says it cut robot AI training from months to 30 minutes

Sapiens Technology, a Singapore start-up, says it has cut the time to train robot AI from months to as little as 30 minutes. The claim comes from the company and has not been independently tested.

The method trains only 1 to 3 billion parameters of a model, instead of a whole system that can have hundreds of billions or trillions. Sapiens says training takes 30 minutes to under a week, against weeks to months normally.

The company says it showed the speeds with commercial robot arms and off-the-shelf robot ducks picking up objects. It says a trained robot can adapt to changed tasks and take text instructions.

The company is in talks with over 30 robotics and medical companies in the United States, China and Singapore. They include China's TetraBOT Electronic Technology and Shanghai Xinwei Medical Technology. Chief executive Bruce Yang said the technique will shorten the time to adapt AI to different industries.