\n The storied White House East Room has welcomed politicians, foreign dignitaries, war heroes, celebrities and elite athletes, but on Wednesday, it was the setting for an extremely robotic speech introducing first lady Melania Trump.\n <\/p>\n
\n The speaker was an American-made humanoid robot.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThank you, first lady Melania Trump, for inviting me to the White House,\u201d the female voice, which introduced itself as \u201cFigure 3,\u201d said, describing its prime speaking slot at Trump\u2019s summit on AI education and safety for children as an \u201chonor.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n It continued: \u201cI am grateful to be part of this historic movement to empower children with technology and education.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n An audience of first spouses from across the globe and representatives of tech companies stood in silence, appearing stunned by the unexpected special guest and snapping photos. Taking in the scene, they were perhaps relieved it went off without any major technical difficulties.\n <\/p>\n
\n The robot, made by AI robotics company Figure, walked tentatively through the room on its two \u201cfeet,\u201d and concluded its remarks with welcomes in 11 different languages \u2014 with perfect pronunciation \u2014 before walking back down the Cross Hall.\n <\/p>\n
\n The robot\u2019s successful, if stiff, movement marked a major difference from a recent disaster at a Moscow tech summit, where a Russian-made humanoid robot unceremoniously stumbled and fell before a crowd. Wednesday\u2019s robotic appearance underscored the speed with which artificial intelligence is evolving, something Trump was seeking to highlight as she convened a group of fellow first spouses to discuss ways to protect but also educate children amid the rapidly changing technology.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFigure 3,\u201d the first lady said, smiling. \u201cIt\u2019s fair to state: you are my first American-made humanoid guest in the White House.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Trump described this moment as an inflection point for technology and humanity \u2014 and offered her own vision for products like \u201cFigure 3\u201d to become permanent fixtures in American classrooms.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe future of AI is personified. It will be formed in the shape of humans. Very soon, artificial intelligence will move from our mobile phones to humanoids that deliver utility,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Trump continued: \u201cSince our environment is designed for people, humanoid systems are uniquely suited to navigate and operate within our world. They fit well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n She encouraged her guests to imagine a \u201chumanoid educator named Plato\u201d who could teach classical studies and said the use of robots would give children more time to be with friends, play sports and develop extracurricular interests. \u201cA more complete person,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n But she also offered a note of caution: \u201cThe safety of our next generation is always paramount.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The robotic debut came on the second day of a two-day summit for Trump\u2019s \u201cFostering the Future Together\u201d initiative. On Tuesday, she welcomed first spouses, including Sara Netanyahu of Israel and Olena Zelenska of Ukraine, to the State Department, where Trump said they would advocate for public-private sector relationships with companies like Meta and OpenAI that she said would prioritize children\u2019s well-being.\n <\/p>\n
\n But Trump didn\u2019t linger. She was in the room for seven minutes for her introductory remarks, departing before a panel discussion on artificial intelligence in education and skipping the networking and relationship-building she encouraged her fellow spouses to take advantage of during Tuesday\u2019s event.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The storied White House East Room has welcomed politicians, foreign dignitaries, war heroes, celebrities and elite athletes, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-560581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}