OpenAI was Figure’s partner. Then, they became competitors.<\/p>\n
OpenAI co-led the humanoid robotics company’s Series B in 2024, and the two companies entered into a collaboration agreement<\/a> to “develop next-generation AI models” for the robots. Less than a year later, Figure CEO Brett Adcock said<\/a> he decided to leave the agreement and build AI in-house.<\/p>\n Adcock shared new details about the separation on “The Shawn Ryan Show<\/a>” this week. He said that OpenAI’s team provided “very little” value aside from its brand.<\/p>\n While he praised OpenAI leadership for their skill at developing chatbots, Adcock said that AI for robotics required a different set of techniques. His internal team, which included alums from top AI companies like Google DeepMind<\/a>, was “complete superstars,” he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, he said he had a hard time “advancing stuff together as a team” with OpenAI.<\/p>\n “In robotics, you’ve got to run the robot, see how it does,” Adcock said. “We just had a hard time getting them in the office.”<\/p>\n As Adcock’s team developed the robot learning, he said that the OpenAI team watched their progress. He described a visit from Altman and OpenAI leaders, who were impressed by Figure’s neural network.<\/p>\n Then, Adcock said he got a call from OpenAI with a plan to pursue humanoids internally. “I was just like, ‘This is over,'” he said.<\/p>\n “There was information passing back that I think wasn’t really helpful for us long-term if we’re going to be competitors,” Adcock said.<\/p>\n OpenAI has since developed a robotics lab with around 100 data collectors that is teaching a robotic arm how to perform household tasks, Business Insider<\/a> reported in January. The company has also backed the Norwegian-American robot maker<\/a> 1X.<\/p>\n