The Don Quixote of La Mancha who fights against the technological giants of Silicon Valley

Alonso Marco Valle, a native of Villanueva de los Infantes (Ciudad Real) and who studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, is our Don Quixote – with whom he even shares the name – who has recently been on board on his exciting American adventure. He came to the United States with a four-month stay at Facebook, in California, and then did a postdoctoral degree at the University of Berkeley, in San Francisco, thanks to a scholarship from the Rafael del Pino Foundation, specializing in humanoid robotics.

Now, this JASP engineer (Young, although well prepared) He has been working since January 2024 in one of the most important companies in that sector in Silicon Valley, such as Figure AI.. There he has developed algorithms that have automated processes in the production of robots with integrated ChatGPT technology, reducing times from several hours to just a few minutes, which has led him to carve out a niche for himself in this company that has another giant among its clients: the German car manufacturer BMW, so that its machines can perform tasks that are cumbersome for humans.

«In just two and a half years, our humanoid robots have broken some of the existing barriers in autonomy and manipulation. For example, we have gotten them to walk independently and manipulate objects they have never seen before, based on human demonstrations. We lead in terms of autonomy and manipulation thanks to the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision and Language Models (VLMs). In addition, they can carry on a conversation with anyone and perform specific tasks, such as organizing objects in a closet, moving autonomously around the office, greeting arriving visitors and bringing them a snack from the kitchen,” Alonso says proudly.

However, getting there has not been easy. «Working in robotics is intense, but very rewarding. The change in my life has been drastic and unexpected and, at the same time, very positive,” as he admits to ABC. «I come from a town of about 5,000 inhabitants – whose name I don’t want to remember – and both there and in Ciudad Real, where I studied, life was slower, more relaxed and enjoyable than in San Francisco, a big city where everything is racing, but at the same time it is much more exciting and fun,” he says.

«For the majority of the people from La Mancha who studied with me, the United States was seen as an unthinkable, practically unattainable destination, reserved for students from wealthy families and with a good level of English. Silicon Valley rarely appeared in the topics of conversation,” recalls Alonso, who After four years at the UCLM university campus in Ciudad Real, he left with an Erasmus scholarship to Germany to study master’s subjects at the Technical University of Darmstadtwhere he had his first approach to robotics.

After other training periods between Barcelona and Germany, he once again reached the Olympus of new computer technologies. “Sometimes I feel that my life has been like several lives concatenated in a small space of time,” says this engineer, who points out that doors have opened for him that he never expected to open. His secret, as he indicates, has been none other than “hard work” or as he himself highlights, quoting the Professor at Stanford University, Andrew Huberman: “The key to success is not to focus on achieving your goals, but to focus on enjoying the path to them.”

A different life

Alonso’s day starts early, with a strong coffee to face his day, a notes application on his laptop and views of the city from his apartment in East Cut, near the docks and the Bay Bridge that connects San Francisco with Oakland and Berkeley. That calm of home changes as soon as he sets foot on the street to head to his workplace at Figure AI. “Silicon Valley – he emphasizes – teaches you to work faster, more intensely and more effectively.” In the afternoons he has time to go to the gym and, usually, to meet someone for dinner or a drink before the warrior’s break for the next daily battle.

He still has time for leisure, since this young man from Ciudad Real is fond of salsa, not eating it, but dancing and playing with his band, something he does often and on the weekends. This is how his life goes in the United States, where he has become aware of the differences of that country, not only on a cultural, social and political level, but above all on an economic level because, as he assures, “the American adventure is only “It makes sense with a good salary and good medical coverage subsidized by your company.” Specifically, In San Francisco and its surroundings, he says that the standard of living is two or three times more expensive than in Spain and it is not difficult to see many homeless people on the streets. «Here you need, at least, 5,000 euros per month to live without many problems and good private health insurance can cost more than 700 euros per month. Without these conditions, Europe is a much better place to live,” he says.

Still, it highlights other positive values ​​of the United States, such as its ethnic and cultural diversity. «It is a country of immigrants, without an official language, where ideas and mentalities from all over the world converge, which makes life more interesting in many aspects. However, now that Donald Trump has just won the elections, those of us who immigrate have to be aware of possible legislative changes that affect us. I’m not worried about my visa, but we have to be careful,” concludes Alonso, who hopes to stay there for a long time to continue feeling fulfilled with his work, but he will always have his homeland of La Mancha: “The United States wins in terms of opportunities and possibilities of growth, but in olive oil, cheese, wine and guitar playing we will always win.”