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Robot demonstrations and lawsuits raise questions and concerns about the capabilities and power of humanoid robots.
First in the spotlight is robotics company Figure AI, which is facing a lawsuit from former safety engineer Robert Grundel. The lawsuit claims that the company’s Form 02 robot was shown in tests to be strong enough to “crack a human skull,” and that Grundel was fired after raising concerns.
A recent lawsuit claims that the 02 shape that appeared in the test was powerful enough to “crack a human skull.”
In a statement to CNBCA spokesperson for the figure denied the allegations and said that Groendel was fired due to “poor performance”. We have reached out to Figure and Gruendel through his attorney and have not yet received a response.
Worldwide, the CEO of Chinese robotics company Engine AI was recently knocked to the ground by the company’s T800 robot, which appropriately (or inappropriately) shares a name with the robot model played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator films.
The CEO donned padding and was prepared for the task, but it’s hard to tell from the video itself and available information exactly how powerful the robot is.
Engine AI’s T800 robot is getting ready.
Peak torque and carrying capacity cannot be adequately translated into calculating how hard a robot can hit, or how much damage it can do to a human body.
Together, these two parallel news stories raise questions about what kind of information developers of humanoid robots must share in order for the risks of this technology to be properly understood.
To see these two robots in action, watch the latest episode of What’s Next, embedded in this article.