Teddy Warner, 19, has always been fascinated by robotics. Growing up in a family involved in the industry, he began working in a machinist shop during high school. Now, Warner is building his own company, Intempus, which aims to make robots more human-like.
Intempus is developing technology that can retrofit existing robots with emotional expressions, helping humans better interact with them and predict their movements. The robots will display emotions through kinetic movements, allowing humans to pick up on subtle cues. This technology also generates data that can be used to improve AI models.
Warner’s idea for Intempus emerged while working at an AI research lab, Midjourney. He realized that current AI models struggled with spatial reasoning because they were trained on robots lacking this ability. To overcome this, Warner developed a new approach by analyzing physiological states, such as emotions and physical responses. This is currently missing in most robots.
Warner experimented with various methods, including fMRI data and polygraph readings, before finding success with sweat data. He has since expanded his research to include body temperature, heart rate, and other factors.
Intempus launched in September 2024, initially focusing on research before expanding into building emotional capabilities for robots. The company has already secured seven enterprise robotics partners and is part of Peter Thiel’s Thiel Fellowship program.
Warner plans to hire more staff and test their technology with existing robots. While Intempus is currently retrofitting robots, Warner is open to developing his own emotionally intelligent robots in the future.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/25/why-intempus-thinks-robots-should-have-a-human-physiological-state