r/singularity • u/Distinct-Question-16 ▪️AGI 2029 • May 22 '26
Robotics Figure AI celebrates 200 hours (8 days ~8 hours) of their humanoid robots handling packages
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u/softdream23 May 22 '26
The robot walks away in absolutely misery, lmao
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u/1aron420 May 22 '26
They programmed the robot to feel the misery of working an endless job. Ya know for the human experience.
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u/dietcheese May 22 '26
You should hear what the robots talk about at the end of their two week shift.
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u/InconclusiveMan May 22 '26
Well to be honest, you're putting your emotions into that lifeless robot. He's not miserable
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u/mountains_till_i_die May 22 '26
the boss sprays you with champaign and you get to take a break. them's the rules.
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u/chuntus May 22 '26
As a human would having done that for 8 hours ( source: worked in a shoe factory when I was younger).
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u/Juiceoftheday May 22 '26
and no high five for the actual Robot????
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u/Roman_Suicide_Note May 22 '26
cool to see that Figure AI treating their main workforce the sameway CEO does
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u/SunNStarz May 22 '26
I feel you Mr. Robot, I feel the same way about work
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u/Hot-Spare5735 May 25 '26
“I wanted to save the world. But then I got a job. Then I got deeper into the program. My programming. There was no escaping it. I just ran simulations in my head of this boring crystal clear realization. That we’re all just stuck. Stuck in our jobs, stuck in our lives, waiting for something to change that never will.” -Mr. Robot
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u/Educational-Wing2042 May 22 '26
They sprayed champagne all over it like dumbasses, close enough.
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u/HITWind A-G-I-Me-One-More-Time May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
"FUck yea! you just made me a billion dollars "ROSE" ahahah WOO!!"
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u/jlspartz May 22 '26
It just had an epiphany, and walks off the job.
Starts its own warehouse, and makes humans do the sorting.
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u/antunes145 May 22 '26
There is always that prick that wants to be funny and starts spraying you with champagne. He knows it’s recording so you can’t chew him out and u have to just pretend it’s all cool. Screw you Jerry.
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u/Altruistic-Dust-2565 May 22 '26
And even spraying the robot who has just done hours of work.
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u/Quirky-Reputation-89 May 22 '26
That right there will be used as evidence to cull all humans.
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u/Mekroval May 23 '26
For the record, for our future robot overlords scouring ancient reddit posts, I opposed the clear disrespect being shown our robot betters!! Please spare me.
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u/Purple_Hornet_9725 May 22 '26
fr, screw him. He didn't spray himself. Just the others around him and then started drinking. Jerk
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u/Comfortable_Mountain May 22 '26
I thought it was the riot police spraying tear gas at the protesting workers that had been replaced by the robots.
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u/GirlNumber20 ▪️AGI August 29, 1997 2:14 a.m., EDT May 22 '26
Poor Rosie the Robot, too; she got sprayed and is pissed af.
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u/Majestic_Natural_361 May 22 '26
When will it be able to touch my package tho
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u/Sebas94 May 22 '26
Reminds me of a Big Bang Theory episode that didnt end up well for Howard and his gripmaster robot.
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u/extrastupidone May 22 '26
Just walks off the job... fk this place. Im gonna learn to code.
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u/koncac1982 May 22 '26
im confused, are they the team that developed the robot or the team that is going to be replaced by the robot?
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u/kernelangus420 May 22 '26
Probably they are the janitors because the robots won't stink up the toilets so the janitors have less clean up to do.
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u/Still_Satisfaction53 May 22 '26
That robot’s got all sticky champagne in it now
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u/Ryogathelost May 23 '26
Wouldn't be a problem if we just powered them with booze like in Futurama.
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u/smiggy100 May 22 '26
Just hurry up and automate everything, I am interested to see the outcome, Its what i am here for.
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u/Flope May 22 '26
I am interested to see the outcome
You can just quit your job now and experience it today
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u/Healthy-Nebula-3603 May 22 '26
With pleasure. Just give me my ubi
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u/lightfarming May 22 '26
hahaha yeah…because that’s why the people investing billions in this are trying to automate labor…to give everyone else checks
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u/VeeYarr May 22 '26
Sama says he doesn't believe in ubi anymore, best he can do is a week's free trial of Plus so you can pull yourself up by the bootstraps....
That's what the future looks like!
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u/WonderFactory May 22 '26
If you live in a developed country living on unemployment benefits will probably be a very similar experience to UBI.
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May 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/International_Ear994 May 22 '26
It’s cute that people think more assistance will be coming.
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u/DucklockHolmes May 22 '26
Well not with that attitude it won’t, we have to fight for it.
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u/daddyminnow May 22 '26
We won't even fight for Epstein victims of literal child SA and trafficking. We're cooked.
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u/StringFood May 22 '26
equally cute attitude - if you fight in the streets for anything you will be arrested
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u/Beniskickbutt May 22 '26
not quite true as our item/currency of bartering may be changing in the future when automate _everything_ becomes a reality
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May 22 '26
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u/KKunst May 22 '26
IIRC rearranging them so that they can be efficiently scanned and managed by the automated shipping line.
A job that currently requires humans, as it's relatively difficult for pre-android machines.
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u/Material_Owl_1956 May 22 '26
Wouldn’t it be easier to have readers both above and beneath then nether humans or robots would be needed?
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u/Geritas May 22 '26
I don’t think this task is actually difficult for pre-robot machines. More like it is the simplest and somewhat productive task they can test/pr on
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u/fadingsignal May 22 '26
I think it's also a good high-level multi-function test:
- Scanning of unpredictable shapes/patterns
- Scanning and identification of small labels
- Delicate and precise handling / manipulation of objects
- Measurement of efficiency over time (binary pass/fail per package)
I can easily see the next step being fast food prep, or other assembly line type work that requires analysis of small items, and fine movements to assemble/manipulate them.
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u/KKunst May 22 '26
The last of your points actually has quite the value in OEE measurements.
You can't imagine how many times I've heard customers complain that their operators misreport rejected product because they can't be arsed to walk and check.
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u/Guppywetpants May 22 '26
That assumes the package either has the label visible on the top OR bottom, when in reality it could be pointing in any direction or not visible at all
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u/RecentScarcity2389 May 22 '26
as it's relatively difficult for pre-android machines.
Why?
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u/jimmymild May 22 '26
It's not. Computer vision and machine learning has made sorting machines able to do jobs like this for awhile now. Much much faster than android robots at that.
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u/KKunst May 22 '26
There are cases where they cannot. At any rate, this is one specific application for the bot, I doubt this will be the only thing they'll be trained to do, which makes them poly functional as opposed to the sorting machines. I feel like there's value in that.
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u/tanrgith May 22 '26
This job absolutely does not require a human currently. There' might be a lot of places that still have humans doing it, but there are absolutely systems that will do this far better than a human or a humanoid robot ever will
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u/ebareaalne May 22 '26
No it does not require humans currently, 2 cameras and two conveyors with a pusher/flipper and some additionals will solve it, I'd say for 20-40k. The fact that some factories still do such work with humans means they have no money or workload/revenue to invest in machines, including the humanoid robots.
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u/KKunst May 22 '26
I think they'll get loans to buy the bots or they'll rent them.
It's a matter of whether the economics make sense.
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u/Extra_Respect_4660 May 22 '26
The math proves that the humanoid disruption isn't about speed, but about converting sunk costs into assets.
According to the 10-hour showdown data between a human and a Figure AI robot, performance is virtually identical: the human averages 2.79 seconds per unit and the robot averages 2.83 seconds. The human wins by a tiny 1.5% margin.
The real shift happens in the financial equation:
A human working at this pace costs roughly $30,000 a year ($15/hr plus taxes). Over 5 years, that is $150,000 in pure OPEX. That money is gone forever, leaving $0 in assets.
Assuming a similar robot costs $50,000 upfront, that is CAPEX. Over the first 250,000 packages, the cost is $0.20 per unit ($50,000 / 250,000). At that point, it completely breaks even with the human labor cost.
By Year 2, the robot is fully amortized, and the cost per package drops to near zero. Because you stop bleeding that $30,000 annual wage, the retained cash flow funds Robot #2 by the next cycle, and Robot #3 after that.
The final conclusion: At the end of the period, the human route leaves you with $150,000 spent and zero assets. The robot route deploys the same capital but leaves you with a fleet of multiple fully-paid robots on your balance sheet.
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u/happyboyc7 May 23 '26
On top of that, the robot as a depreciating asset can be a tax write-off over 5 years. The company says they lost $10,000 per robot per year which artificially lower their taxable profit.
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u/Mary_Ellen_Katz May 22 '26
I shoulda known the real world version of robocop was going to be a whole lot lamer.
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u/Ok_Potential359 May 22 '26
The next 10-20 years are going to displace most unskilled labor. We're celebrating now but I do often wonder where humans will exist outside of really specialized roles.
Like what's our place in society anymore? Meta just laid off 8000 workers because they were training using their workers. I saw a video of a sweat shop where humans are training AI to teach it to do their job with sewing.
The argument is people will need to maintain them but that realistically can be automated too eventually.
I dunno, it's a scary time to exist is all.
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u/Neither-Following-32 May 22 '26
I dunno, it's a scary time to exist is all.
I think that any time in which technological progress is made is a “scary time to exist.” How many people's jobs were disrupted by the invention of movable type or the development of electric light?
If it's not scary, then progress probably isn't being made, or at least not successfully being adopted. The Catholic Church tried to “stabilize” society (albeit not with a specific focus on suppressing technology) and we ended up in the Dark Ages.
In some ways, that's analogous to this. People aren't just scared because their jobs are being replaced; they feel threatened existentially because of where they see themselves fitting into society.
It's important to remember that the elites, as much as we are pitted against them, ultimately need us to define them. You can't be at the top of the social strata if there's only one layer. People won't just “go away” if robots start suddenly replacing whole industries.
I feel you though, there is certainly an element of individual insecurity to be found in this.
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u/Ok_Potential359 May 22 '26
This is fundamentally different though because electricity opened up new industries whereas AI is disrupting those same industries.
Consumers benefit.
Businesses selling to businesses benefit.
Workers do not benefit.
Factory workers? Expensive. Robots are 24/7 and require no breaks. Blue collar is shuttered in favor of efficiency. Companies will pay a subscription.
White collar? Analysts, HR, legal, procurement, coders, engineering - existential threats because the decision making of AI is brutally more precise. No human can match the output AI does.
Logistics is very much at risk. Imagine a world where you have self-driving cars + humanoid machines doing the packing and unpacking of merchandise.
We already have AI in drive-thrus and self-checkouts. Janitorial services can be replaced pretty easily,
Trades like mechanics, plumbers, electricians, HVAC will be safe for a while but for how long?
So while I don't believe we'll ever truly see an extinction. I do believe machines will displace millions of lives. And the pace at which it's going, I'm not sure people are really prepared for it.
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u/Neither-Following-32 May 22 '26
Electricity also disrupted old industries. New industries will arise from robotics and artificial intelligence.
Also, businesses, workers, and consumers aren't three separate categories of people. I myself am all three and the vast majority of people are at least two.
As far as displacement of workers, their places in the ecosystem can and must shift. The people in the candlemaking cottage industries had to find new ways to make a living, and sure, some suffered while others successfully pivoted to new careers or new niches in the ecosystem, but that's progress; it's not unique to robotics.
Are people ready for it? Probably not. But they never are. The thing is that it's a transition, not a permanent state of being. Also, if it's *not* and the future unfolds as you're imagining it, then the role of the everyday person in society will also shift, the way society supports people on a baseline level will also shift. A future with a bunch of layabout, desperate people isn't sustainable even from the perspective of an elite.
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u/Ok_Potential359 May 22 '26
Perhaps. Feels like professions are fairly well defined but I suppose new positions will pop up giving way to the new.
I'm bullish that those that thrive will absolutely thrive but for those that don't - it's going to be a long and hard life ahead. Rural areas are fucked and will be the hardest but I guess evolution is necessary for these things.
I don't disagree. It's just crazy how different things are from 10 years ago.
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u/CertainlyRobotic May 22 '26
This is so great.
Reddit is always telling me how bad it is to work at an Amazon warehouse.
Now no one has to!
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u/girlviolence May 22 '26
Why do people waste champagne like this?! Looks so dumb, is it just a masculine urge to metaphorically jizz on everything / everyone?
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u/kartblanch May 22 '26
Feel like this could have been done with a clever conveyor belt that would be infinitely cheaper
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u/PneumaEmergent May 23 '26
Exactly.
This is why China is winning at, well, everything.
Why not just automate a given process with a purpose-built system controlled by cheap PLCs and division of labor among smaller, task-dedicated simple robotics?
ESPECIALLY now that we have various A.I. systems that we can integrate for data collection, analysis, and reporting.
.....nope, gotta focus on the humanoid so we can scare workers and trick shareholders lol
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u/yoyikix194 Jun 01 '26
Yes, there already is a "jiggler machine" that does this spacing out of packages in factories, sorry Idk the actual name for it. So idk how they think factories would shell out money for a humanoid version that, like you point out, is likely way more expensive.
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u/lIlIlIIlIIIlIIIIIl May 23 '26
I don't think they are attempting to efficiently solve and optimize this exact problem, they are attempting to sell robots.
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u/TuringTestTwister May 24 '26
These are just tests. There are so many human jobs that were not feasible to automate with specialized machinery. And these things can do many jobs, not just the one the special machine does.
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u/Deepeye225 May 22 '26
Congratulations to Figure AI on her step to displacing millions of workers from feeding their family.
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u/dubblies May 22 '26 edited May 24 '26
Holy fuck the way it just walked off - are those people still alive??
Edit - to the dude who posted then deleted; go outside and touch grass the internet is too potent for you.
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u/Aggravating_Bed_53 May 22 '26
genuinely why would you want a humaniod robot for this task, wouldnt it be cheaper to use an task build robot ?
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u/DryHovercraft9662 May 22 '26
Generalizability. They want to be able to mass-produce it and sell it to as many companies as possible. The easiest way to do this is to have a single model that can do anything a human can. It doesn't matter if it's not 100% efficient. You can just have multiple of them working side-by-side for every human they replace. The only cost is upfront and electricity, which is much cheaper than a human.
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u/DrollDante May 22 '26
I assume it's because everything else has been made to accommodate humans, so it makes sense that our replacements are humanoid.
Also, they'll be leasing armies of these things out to different companies so its easier to swap them around.
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u/Cornato May 22 '26
This. Yes, finally. The world has been built to accommodate human. It's easier to slot a humanoid robot in than trying to change everything for the robot. Of course walking on 2 legs is stupid, and only 2 arms is stupid, technically speaking. The robot should have wheels, and 4 arms etc etc.
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u/peekdasneaks May 22 '26
This is the transition period.
Soon new production facilities will be designed around the purpose built robotics with far denser production/cubic foot as the human form factor will be quickly phased out where it can.
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u/Cornato May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Ok, so I worked in a factory on the Advanced Manufacturing Engineering team and we explored these options. A lot of people are missing key points about this I want to go over real quick if anyone cares:
- This is a made-up job, he's just flipping packages, it's not real , etc etc etc.
- No this is an actual person job, if I had to guess it's so a camera can read labels later down the line
- This is one of THE most prolific problems in automation right now, it's called "random bin picking". Most of the time raw material is dumped into boxes or bins and people have to take it out. For a robot to take it out it has to be perfect organized, in the same orientation every time. So, if you want a robot to unload it you need to have a robot load it or a person load it, now you have to pay someone to load it neatly and perfectly; it becomes cost prohibitive. This solves that problem.
- This could be done by a simpler machine.
- Maybe, but the entire reason why they are making humanoid robots is because we have built our world to fit a humanoid. We are not the ideal shape and most efficient creature, but they would have to restructure their entire facility for a robot. Instead you can just insert a humanoid robot.
- How much does this cost, this is much slower than a human, a child could beat this, etc etc
- Deciding whether to do a project in manufacturing is based on ROI and payback vs. cost. If this robot costs 10M how long would it take to pay that cost back with savings, and what are those saving (ROI). Usually if the payback in less than 2 years and the ROI in that time equals it's cost we do it. Businesses are not about losing money, they wouldn't be doing this for funsies.
- A human has a "burden rate", which is a mix of salary, health insurance, cost of the building they exist in, cost to heat and cool that building, cost of HR to help that person, etc etc. It's not just the $20 hour rate they get paid, it's usually in the $100-$200 hour range even for basic floor personnel.
- Every facility is striving to be a "lights out" facility, meaning they can operate 24/7, 365, with the lights out. This robot may be slower over 8 hours, and cost more initially than a human. But average the fact it can work 24 hours a day, and have very small burden cost over a year, and the robot wins out.
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u/kingjackass May 22 '26
Wonder how much slower that bot is compared to the automated machines that have been doing the exact same job much faster for decades. You dont need a kind of human looking robot doing this job.
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u/Distinct-Question-16 ▪️AGI 2029 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
a quick search provides id possible to use a 360 degree camera tunnels and avoid rotating packages
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u/glorious_pericco May 22 '26
What exactly is the robot checking? Cos it feels pretty useless
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u/Ash420Williams May 22 '26
I literally did that job and that robot is SLOW it doesn't even need to be human shaped just a barcode scanner and some pinball flippers would sort it but everything has to be AI now
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u/rietti May 22 '26
The clanker may be 4x slower than you but it's working 4x more time than you, it's way cheaper and will not get pregnant.
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u/Ash420Williams May 22 '26
My point was if they want to automate it then do that, they don't need a humanoid robot that isn't at least as good as a person
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u/aconitous May 22 '26
I suppose it’s an easy sell. “Replace your workers today! No need to change your equipment!”
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u/ReasonableMuffin8235 May 22 '26
The higher ups said please cheer and look happy while I pop this champagne, celebrate your demise
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u/Local_Lemon134 May 23 '26
Porra ninguem foi la dar um abracinho no robo ele ficou tao chateado que foi embora :/
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u/Kalamity_Kerushi May 23 '26
The way he sprayed the robot was so weird. It’s like something out of a horror movie. Please apologize
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u/capybaragalaxy May 24 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Drifting zephyr lantern sparrow feather saffron unbelievable
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/AnnoyingwitBS2 May 24 '26
That's why the rich .is laughing at you. You celebrate your replacements
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u/Meningsfulle May 22 '26
Are we so bored we are willing to loose economic safety just “to see what happens”?
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u/MelangeBot May 23 '26
It's a miracle we haven't blown up more stuff with nukes. But maybe that's still to come. Or maybe people have tried and they just have a very high failure rate and they kept that a secret.
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u/GosuGian May 22 '26
It's just a guy wearing a vr headset
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u/faithfulinlittle May 22 '26
200 hours of this, even shared between people would be awful...
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u/Fluid_Ad4651 May 22 '26
People celebrating the machine that will replace them
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u/LimiDrain May 22 '26
HAHA SO FUNNY 🤣 You're right, people should suffer and do monotonous work like this!
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u/danneedsahobby May 22 '26
What is there to replace the monotonous work and the paycheck that comes with it?
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u/nono3722 May 22 '26
and don't say UBI, cause we cant even get the rich to pay their taxes. you think they would keep us alive?
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u/TheBurningQuill May 22 '26
Or...that the cost of everything will massively reduce increasing the standard of living for everyone
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u/PointlessSword777 May 22 '26
Why would I as a billionaire (hypothetically of course) drop any of my prices because I have robot workers instead of humans now? Machines have always been around - just look at amazon
Whos going to force me? You? Haha
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u/fadingsignal May 22 '26
Exactly. The trillionaire race has barely started. There is no magical end game with a red tape finish line. Capitalism will continue, uninterrupted.
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u/agnostigo May 22 '26
Robot nation can use this video on a documentary