Amid Its Big Humanoid Robot Rollout, an Ex-Amazon AI Chief Will Now Lead Boston Dynamics

gizmodo.com Oct 7, 2026

Amid Its Big Humanoid Robot Rollout, an Ex-Amazon AI Chief Will Now Lead Boston Dynamics

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Oct 7, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Rohit Prasad, former Amazon senior VP and head scientist for AI and Alexa, will assume the CEO role at Boston Dynamics, a Hyundai‑owned robotics firm, effective Wednesday. Prasad’s appointment follows a period of executive turnover and a strategic pivot toward large‑scale humanoid production. Boston Dynamics plans to manufacture 30,000 Atlas robots by 2028, with 25,000 intended for use in Hyundai and Kia automotive factories. The company aims to transition from viral demonstrations to practical industrial deployment, positioning its robots for tasks such as lifting 110 pounds and reaching 7.5‑foot heights.

💡 Why It Matters

· The move signals a decisive shift toward integrating advanced AI with mass‑produced robotics, potentially reshaping manufacturing workflows and setting a new benchmark for industrial automation.

Read full article on gizmodo.com

Boston Dynamics appoints ex-Amazon executive Rohit Prasad as CEO

Boston Dynamics, the humanoid‑robot manufacturer owned by Hyundai Motor Group, announced the appointment of Rohit Prasad as chief executive officer, effective October 7. Prasad joins from Amazon, where he served as senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa and Artificial General Intelligence, overseeing the translation of physical AI breakthroughs into marketable products. He replaces Robert Playter, who stepped down in February. Hyundai Motor Group, which acquired Boston Dynamics, disclosed plans earlier this year to construct a factory capable of producing 30,000 robot units per year by 2028, with the goal of deploying the machines across all its manufacturing sites. The leadership change underscores Boston Dynamics’ push to accelerate commercial rollout of its advanced robotics under Hyundai’s broader automation strategy.

💡 Prasad’s AI commercialization expertise aligns with Hyundai’s aggressive robot‑production target, positioning the company to scale advanced robotics across global factories faster than competitors.

fortune.com · Oct 7

Elon Musk is a trillionaire again—and he’d still be the richest person…

Elon Musk’s net worth surged to $1.04 trillion after an 8% jump in SpaceX shares, making him the world’s richest person by a wide margin. The rise came as Morgan Stanley analysts labeled the stock “cheap,” citing potential AI products, Starship progress, and new cloud contracts. Musk owns roughly 4.76 billion shares of SpaceX, plus 1.3 billion unvested shares, boosting his fortune from $976.9 billion. Even if he distributed $89.40 to every one of 8.3 billion people, he would still retain about $298 billion, surpassing the next richest individual.

💡 Musk’s ability to remain a trillionaire despite massive wealth redistribution underscores the outsized influence of a single individual on global financial markets and highlights the volatility of fortunes tied to private company valuations.

therobotreport.com · Oct 6

Boston Dynamics appoints former Amazon exec Rohit Prasad as new CEO

Boston Dynamics announced that former Amazon senior vice president Rohit Prasad will become its third CEO, succeeding interim leader Amanda McMaster. Prasad, who led Alexa’s AI development and Amazon’s enterprise foundation models, is expected to merge the company’s robotics expertise with advanced AI to commercialize intelligent machines at scale. The appointment follows a nine‑month vacancy after Robert Playter’s resignation and aims to accelerate the firm’s physical‑AI strategy across industrial and commercial sectors. Prasad will also join the board pending approvals.

💡 Prasad’s background in large‑scale AI productization positions Boston Dynamics to rapidly deploy robotics solutions that enhance safety and productivity, potentially reshaping automation in manufacturing and logistics.

lightreading.com · Oct 6

Deutsche Telekom boss’s ‘AI optimism’ isn’t shared

Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Höttges showcased a staged AI‑generated video at the company’s AI investor day in Bonn, depicting himself in historic German moments and on a telecom mast. He used the clip to illustrate AI’s ability to replicate language, images and movement, calling himself an “AI optimist.” The presentation coincided with a KPMG survey indicating only one‑third of Germans trust AI‑generated information. Investors reacted skeptically to the operator’s AI strategy, and employee sentiment appears less enthusiastic than management’s. Höttges’ flamboyant display highlighted a growing gap between executive confidence in AI’s profit potential and broader public and workforce apprehension about the technology’s reliability and impact.

💡 The disconnect between leadership’s AI hype and stakeholder doubt could stall Deutsche Telekom’s rollout of AI‑driven services, jeopardizing its competitive edge in a rapidly digitising market.

techcrunch.com · Oct 6

Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet

Self‑taught coder Sigil Wen, a former Thiel Fellow who hacked alongside Andrej Karpathy, Aravind Srinivas and Noam Brown, launched Underdog on Monday. The assistant runs entirely on‑device on macOS and Windows PCs, with other platforms coming soon. Powered by Wen’s Husky inference engine, Underdog uses a 27‑billion‑parameter model fine‑tuned from Qwen‑3.8‑27B and matches benchmark results of Claude Opus 4.6. It encrypts account keys and keeps all user data local, removing cloud processing. Underdog will be free initially and will earn a tiny fee on payments it facilitates through Stripe, avoiding ads or data‑selling models. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Stripe co‑founder Patrick Collison and other angels, Conway Research pitches the product as a privacy‑first AI assistant for everyday personal use.

💡 By proving that a capable AI can run locally without monetizing user data, Underdog challenges the prevailing cloud‑centric business model and forces larger players to confront privacy as a competitive differentiator.

macworld.com · Oct 6

John Ternus is already doing it all

Apple’s newly appointed CEO John Ternus has completed just over a month in the role, prompting analysts to gauge his emerging leadership style. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Ternus is steering Apple toward a “more experimental” product cadence while maintaining a leaner workforce. A proposed plan to replace roughly 5,000 AppleCare support staff with AI‑driven agents was paused, and instead the company trimmed middle‑management positions. Ternus has also taken a hands‑on approach to design, regularly working in the Apple design studio—a contrast to Tim Cook’s limited visits. This dual focus on accelerated product releases and internal restructuring suggests Ternus may reshape Apple’s innovation pipeline and operational efficiency early in his tenure.

💡 Ternus’s hands‑on design involvement could accelerate Apple’s next wave of hardware, while the restrained AI rollout signals a cautious balance between cost cuts and customer service quality.