First Lady Melania Trump entered a White House technology summit accompanied by a humanoid robot, which delivered brief opening remarks, and has been hyped as an eventual “replacement for human labor.”
Key Facts
- The robot, developed by Figure AI and known as Figure 03, slowly walked alongside the first lady down the White House Cross Hall before delivering opening remarks, complete with hand gestures, introducing itself, thanking the first lady and saying “welcome” in 11 different languages.
- Figure 03 walked back around the summit speakers, who looked on in lengthy silence as the robot successfully made its way back down the hall.
- Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock claimed on X the robot was operating with full autonomy.
Tangent
The White House appearance comes days after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff posted a video of him tossing packages in front of a Figure 03 model while it sorted parcels at a warehouse, calling the robot “impressive.”
Big Number
$24,760. That’s how much, according to Figure AI, Figure 03 will cost. It is considered be a direct competitor to Tesla’s Optimus robot and 1X’s NEO robot, the latter of which will begin deliveries this year alongside a $20,000 price tag.
Who Is Brett Adcock?
Adcock, 39, is a technology entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of $19.1 billion and ranks No. 135 on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list. He also recently launched an AI lab known as Hark, which will develop software and hardware for its own AI model. Adcock is also a founder behind Cover, an AI security company that builds concealed weapon detection systems for schools. Adcock has no clear ties to the White House, and his only recorded political giving is relatively minor ($15,000) donations to Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, along with previous donations to two now-retired members of Congress, Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W. Va., and Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn.
Key Background
Several tech giants including NVIDIA, Microsoft, Salesforce and Samsung have invested in Figure AI. Founded in 2022, the company generated over $1 billion in Series C funding last year, helping it reach a $39 billion post-money valuation in September. Adcock told Forbes in 2024 the goal for Figure AI’s robots “is to be a generalizable replacement for human labor.” Figure 03 is the latest version of the company’s humanoid robots, sporting a smoother design to the clunkier-looking Figure 02. The latest model is 9% lighter and has an improved audio system for real time speech-to-speech. It is unclear when Figure 03 will be available to consumers, but reports have suggested a late 2026 launch.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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