Figure sends its humanoids; Figure 02 shows them jumping of their own accord into molten steel

Rather than letting its in-house actuators leak, Figure has used simulation to train its old robots to throw themselves into a Finnish arc furnace. The ingots that emerge are put up for sale.

Figure AI ended the career of its Figure 02 fleet in an unusual way: the humanoids, which had become too difficult to maintain, were simulated to jump into a 75-ton electric arc furnace at a foundry in Imatra, Finland. The stated goal is to completely destroy the actuators and other components designed in-house, to prevent this intellectual property from ending up in the wild.

According to the company, the robots performed the jump without error despite the extreme heat and electromagnetic fields around the furnace. The operation took 24 hours, spread over six casts. Figure explains that he had to cross the Atlantic because he could not find a foundry in the United States or Mexico that would allow robots equipped with lithium-ion batteries to dive in.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had encouraged the idea on social media, makes an appearance in the video to salute a melting robot. The recovered metal is now sold in the form of bars, between $500 and $1,900 each.