Figure AI, a robotics company, just released a new video about its latest prototype and it’s definitely the most impressive thing you’ll see this week. Thanks to OpenAI technology, the latter can hold a conversation while carrying out simple household tasks.
The era of humanoid robots has begun and, although advances in the field are still relatively rare, some are already planning to use them to replace humans in factories. Others are looking more at the possibility of making them real domestic helpers. Optimus, Tesla’s robot, is already positioning itself as a real everyday assistant, having been able (more or less) to fold clothes for several months.
Figure AI is one of the companies now in this race. And it could be that it is one step ahead of the competition. Yesterday, the firm shared a video presenting the progress made on Figure 01, its humanoid robot prototype. On the surface, this one is nothing special compared to the Tesla or Boston Dynamics models. But you just have to talk to it for it to display an interesting detail: the OpenAI logo.
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This robot uses OpenAI technology to hold a conversation
The video shows the robot carrying out various tasks requested of it. When asked for food, he hands over an apple on the counter. He puts away the waste left there and the dishes in the drying rack provided for this purpose. Figure 01 does all this by answering the user’s questions and requests. When we ask him how he thinks he did, he doesn’t hesitate to give himself a good assessment – something that would be hard to take away from him.
To achieve this feat, Figure 01 is equipped with VLM technology, for Visual Language Model. This is similar to the LLM, which notably runs ChatGPT, except that instead of evaluating the best possibility for constructing a sentence, it is capable of scanning its environment in search of the object responding best. better at the user’s request. Add to that mechanical arms equipped with functional hands, and you have what today most resembles our assistant of tomorrow.