Meta teams up with Anduril to make AI-powered military products
Meta Platforms Inc is collaborating with Anduril Industries Inc to create AI-powered military products for the US military, including a virtual and augmented reality helmet named "Eagle Eye." This partnership marks a reunion between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, who previously co-founded Oculus VR. The collaboration aims to enhance battlefield perception and control of autonomous platforms. Meta has also updated its policies to allow military contractors to utilize its AI models.
(May 30): Meta Platforms Inc is partnering with defence contractor Anduril Industries Inc to develop new products for the US military, including an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features.
Anduril is working with Meta “to design, build, and field a range of integrated XR products that provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield”, according to a company blog post published on Thursday. Palmer Luckey, a co-founder of Anduril, also co-founded Oculus VR, the gaming headset company he sold to Meta in 2014.
At least one of those products will be a “sci-fi-style military helmet” named “Eagle Eye”, according to Core Memory, an independent publication run by journalist Ashlee Vance.
“It’s the thing that everyone’s always wanted,” Luckey told Vance in an interview. “People have called them different things: They have called them Call of Duty googles. They have called it, you know, the helmet from Halo.”
“These are old ideas that have only recently become really technologically viable.”
In November, Meta changed its “acceptable use” policies so that its large language AI models could be used by US military contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp and Palantir Technologies Inc. A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The partnership involves a surprising reunion between Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg and Luckey, who has said he was ousted from Meta after controversy around financing a group creating anti-Hillary Clinton memes ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. Zuckerberg’s politics in recent years have purportedly trended rightwards.
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