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Figure AI details plan to improve humanoid robot safety in the workplace

Safety is often overlooked in the rush to bring humanoid robots to the workplace. As high-profile corporations ranging from retailers like Amazon to carmakers such as Mercedes and BMW have announced humanoid pilots for factories and warehouses, conversations around worker safety are regularly buried beneath industry hype. One Bay Area-robotics firm is hoping to correct

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Tesla’s bot non-disclosure and why humanoid robots are taking off

At Tesla’s robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose.  On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan chatted with TechCrunch’s hardware editor Brian

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Figure’s new humanoid robot leverages OpenAI for natural speech conversations

Figure has unveiled its latest humanoid robot, the Figure 02. The system is — and its name helpfully suggests — the successor to the Figure 01 robot unveiled in 2023. An initial teasr video is similar to those we’ve seen from other humanoids, echoing consumer electronics product videos, rather than a raw demo of the

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Persona’s founders are certain the world can use another humanoid robot

MIT research scientist Jerry Pratt is back at it. In 2022, he left Boardwalk Robotics, a humanoid startup he founded and led, and joined the well-funded ranks of the Bay Area-based robotics firm Figure as its CTO months before it exited stealth. But he and Figure quietly parted ways last month. Last week, when Pratt

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