Curious Machines

Apprentice — A Real-World RL Platform

Machines that think.
Bodies that act.

Apprentice is a compliant, hydraulic humanoid built to generate the contact-rich data real-world reinforcement learning needs — for frontier AI labs and research groups.

Hydraulic Actuation
Real-World RL Data
Mountain View, CA
Founded 2026

The Platform

Apprentice

A general-purpose hydraulic humanoid — soft, compliant, and built to generate the contact-rich data real-world reinforcement learning needs. Where rigid humanoids trade safety for speed, compliance gives Apprentice both: a body safe enough to work anywhere, and rich enough tactile signal to teach itself the rest.

ActuationHydraulic, compliant joints
DataContact-rich, real-world signal
Design goalSafe enough to work anywhere
Built forFrontier AI labs & research groups
01

General Purpose

One robot. Every task.

02

Works With People

Built for collaboration, not automation.

03

Safe by Design

Compliance is architecture, not an afterthought.

For Research Labs

Bring Apprentice into your lab.

We’re working with a small number of frontier AI labs and university research groups to put Apprentice to work generating real-world RL data. If that’s you, we’d like to talk early.

Talk to us about Apprentice

What a pilot looks like

  • Early access to hardware
  • Direct sim-to-real support from the team
  • A say in what we build next

What’s Coming

A brighter, more capable future
is arriving faster than you think.

We think the machines of tomorrow should feel less like tools and more like teammates — optimistic, capable, and genuinely useful in everyday life. That’s the future we’re building toward, one step at a time.

Join the Team

Small team. Outsized ownership.

We’re early — which means the people who join now will shape far more than their job description. If that sounds exciting rather than daunting, we’d like to meet you.

View open roles

Ship real things, fast

Small teams, short feedback loops, and the ownership to match.

Work directly with founders

No layers between your ideas and what gets built next.

Help define the culture

Early enough that what you build here becomes how we work.

We’re Just Getting Started

If this future excites you,
we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch