ChatGPT Moment for Robots? Figure 01, the Humanoid Robot That Helps You Brew Coffee
Artificial Intelligence
4-minute read
Recently, Brett Adcock, the founder of the humanoid robot startup, Figure, briefly revealed on X (formerly Twitter): "We just had an AI breakthrough in our lab. Robotics is about to have its ChatGPT moment, and that moment is happening tomorrow." A few hours later, the humanoid robot Figure 01 was unveiled— the robot had learned how to "make coffee." More precisely speaking, the robot had learned how to operate a capsule coffee machine to make coffee.
Figure-01 has learned to make coffee ☕️
— Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) January 7, 2024
Our AI learned this after watching humans make coffee
This is end-to-end AI: our neural networks are taking video in, trajectories out
Join us to train our robot fleet: https://t.co/egQy3iz3Kypic.twitter.com/Y0ksEoHZsW
Doesn't sound too impressive, does it?
According to the demonstration, after watching a 10-minute video of humans making coffee, Figure 01 was asked by an engineer "Hey, Figure01, can you make me a cup of coffee?" Then, the robot lifted the lid of the capsule coffee machine with its right hand (why Keurig and not Nespresso? Is there a sponsorship deal?), took a coffee capsule with its left hand, loaded the capsule properly into the machine, closed the lid, and pressed the brew button with its right index finger. And just like that, a cup of coffee was made.
Is this the humanoid robot's ChatGPT moment?
If ChatGPT has given us a glimpse of general artificial intelligence, then Figure 01, which "claims" to learn autonomously from watching videos, might just give us a peek at the prototype of a general-purpose humanoid robot. Of course, this is assuming that the video from Figure is not faked. If Figure 01 truly possesses a certain degree of flexibility and adaptability, and does not require engineers to set up each task for it, being able to learn and mimic successfully through autonomous observation, then that's quite impressive indeed.
For example, this time it's the simple operation of a capsule coffee machine, but next time it might be throwing dirty clothes into the washing machine and adding detergent. In time, if Figure 01 could learn how to use a hand grinder to grind beans, prepare and preheat the filter paper, and then begin pouring, that would be quite amazing! Or perhaps a version of the reality competition show "Hell's Kitchen" starring only a cast of humanoid robots wouldn't be bad either (Gordon, watch your blood pressure), I'm looking forward to it.
Eggs are very fragile. (Source: Tesla Optimus-Gen 2)
In related news, the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) had previously released a video of a robot making breakfast, in which robotic arms would crack eggs and peel potatoes, and they mentioned that they were building a "Large Behavior Model" (LBM) for the robot. If we're talking about the latest in humanoid robots, Elon Musk also recently showcased the updated the Tesla Optimus-Gen 2, which can handle eggs delicately without breaking them.
I wonder how many more demonstration videos Figure 01 will bring us? Could it be that 2024 is the year of explosive growth for general artificial intelligence in humanoid robots?
