Robotics AI startup Generalist AI has raised an additional $200 million in funding. A SiliconANGLE report citing Axios on Aug. 25 said the round was led by 8VC, with some existing investors also participating.

The fundraising news comes about a week after Generalist AI unveiled its new AI model, Gen-1.5. Gen-1.5 is designed for robot arms and focuses on sharply reducing the time needed to build factory automation workflows.

Previously, developers had to program robot arms directly for each task to be automated. Even a slight change in on-site conditions meant the code had to be revised. For example, a robot that packs products into boxes may need an update if the box is changed to a larger one.

Some robots reduced the burden of separate coding by using AI models, but teaching them new tasks often required fine-tuning neural networks. Generalist AI explained that Gen-1.5 is a simple alternative.

The company said the model can learn new tasks when a user shows how the work is done by hand. The demonstration can be recorded with cameras built into the robot or sensors attached to the user's hand, and simulated robot videos can also be used for training.

Generalist AI said tests of Gen-1.5 on 10 sample tasks showed an average completion rate of 59 percent when the task was demonstrated only once.