Rohit Prasad Joins Boston Dynamics as CEO, BIT Mesra Grad and AI Enthusiast
In Short
Rohit Prasad, a BIT Mesra graduate and former Amazon AI executive, will lead Boston Dynamics as it expands its focus on AI-powered robots.
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Rohit Prasad Joins Boston Dynamics as CEO, BIT Mesra Grad and AI Enthusiast
Rohit Prasad has become the CEO of Boston Dynamics. Rohit Prasad is leaving Amazon, where Rohit Prasad spent, than ten years working on some of the company’s largest artificial intelligence projects.
The Indian-origin technology executive, who grew up in Ranchi, Jharkhand, is best known for his work on Alexa and Amazon's newer AI efforts. He now takes the helm of Boston Dynamics at a time when the robotics company is looking to make its machines smarter and more capable through artificial intelligence.
Prasad's appointment became effective on October 7. He replaces Robert Playter, who stepped down as CEO in February after six years in the position. Prasad is also expected to join the Boston Dynamics board, subject to approval.
His move to the robotics company marks a shift from his work, which was largely centred on AI, machine learning and speech technology. At Boston Dynamics that experience will be put to work alongside Boston Dynamics expertise. The focus will be, on building robots for commercial use.
From Ranchi to the world of AI
Prasad became interested, in computers and artificial intelligence as he grew up in Ranchi. He really liked the idea of machines talking to people. This interest was probably because of Star Trek.
That early interest eventually turned into a career in machine learning, speech recognition and conversational AI. Before joining Amazon Prasad spent 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies, where he focused on machine-learning research, for both government and commercial uses.
He joined Amazon in 2012. Stayed with the company for 12 years. Over that time, he rose to the role of vice president and head scientist for Alexa and Artificial General Intelligence. While at Amazon he played a role, in guiding Alexa’s development. He helped transform Alexa from a voice assistant into a service that millions of people use every day in their homes.
Prasad also led work on Amazon Nova, the company's family of foundation models designed for enterprise use.
BIT Mesra graduate
Prasad studied engineering at Birla Institute of Technology Mesra in Ranchi. He then went on to study advanced topics in electrical engineering and computer science in the United States.
His education and many years of experience in intelligence are now being used at Boston Dynamics, which is more and more focused, on what it calls "Physical AI"—technology that helps machines learn about and react to the physical world.
The company makes robots including Spot, Stretch and Atlas. Hyundai Motor Group, Boston Dynamics parent company also plans to deploy Atlas robots at its manufacturing facilities with the deployments expected in 2028.
