Figure

California-based robotics outfit Figure has today announced its second-generation humanoid robot, which is initially being aimed at production lines in commercial settings, but the company is promising a bipedal butler in our homes in the near future.

Nearly six months ago, Figure announced its gleaming silver humanoid robot had got its first job working at a BMW manufacturing plant. It's been training up for the occasion, and new video shows how far this general-purpose worker has come.

Figure has demonstrated the first fruit of its collaboration with OpenAI to enhance the capabilities of humanoid robots. In a video released today, the Figure 01 bot is seen conversing in real-time.

It seems the Figure 01 won't just be making coffee when it shows up to work at BMW. New video shows the humanoid getting its shiny metal butt to work, doing exactly the sort of "pick this up and put it over there" tasks it'll be doing in factories.

Figure has signed its first commercial deal, and is sending its general-purpose humanoid robots off to start real-world work at BMW's manufacturing plant in South Carolina. Founder and CEO Brett Adcock talks us through this rubber-meets-road moment.

Figure's Brett Adcock claimed a "ChatGPT moment" for humanoid robotics on the weekend. Now, we know what he means: the robot can now watch humans doing tasks, build its own understanding of how to do them, and start doing them entirely autonomously.

After a year of development, Figure has released video footage of its humanoid robot walking – and it's looking pretty sprightly compared to its commercial competition. It's our first look at a prototype that should be doing useful work within months.

Brett Adcock has co-founded two companies on the bleeding edges of innovation in emerging markets: Archer Aviation, in the world of eVTOL aircraft, and Figure, in humanoid robots. We look into his background, and the startup that launched it all.

Humanoid robot laborers will soon hit the workforce, powered by AI and designed eventually to take over any task a human worker can do. Figure's Brett Adcock is one of the people driving this seismic shift, so we asked him what the future holds.

In 10 years, Brett Adcock has gone from founding an online talent marketplace, to selling it for nine figures, to founding the third-ranked eVTOL aircraft company, to going after one of tech's greatest challenges: general-purpose humanoid robots.

Humanoid robots built around cutting-edge AI brains promise shocking, disruptive change to labor markets and the wider global economy – and near-unlimited investor returns to whoever gets them right at scale. Big money is now flowing into the sector.