There's a good chance we're one step closer to the emergence of robotic employees in the workplace. AI startup Figure (which means “figure out a solution to a problem in English”) has raised $675 million – 245 billion Hungarian forints – in its second round of capital investment.
The company's goal is to develop humanoid robots capable of performing general work tasks. It seems that others do not consider this possibility to be a far-fetched idea. The second round of investment valued the company at $2.6 billion – 944 billion Hungarian forints – mentioned Many American news portals, including Quartz, reported on the deal and the company's plans.
Investors in Figure include Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world.
“Our vision is to develop humanoid robots that can be sold commercially in the shortest possible time,” said Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of the company. For this reason, they work closely with Microsoft and OpenAI.
According to the 21-month-old company's image, its robots will be able to free people from unsafe, unpleasant or disgusting jobs. In this way, human life can become happier and more meaningful. The last comment may indicate that robots do not want to deprive people of their livelihood, but rather want to provide them with goodness. The new capital is used to produce and intelligentize new robots. In the latter, they collaborate with OpenAI and the Microsoft Azure MI platform.
