Figure AI CEO Claims Humanoid Robots are Creating a New Species

Figure AI's CEO Brett Adcock has sparked debate by stating that his company is creating a new species through its development of humanoid robots. Speaking at Salesforce's Dreamforce event, Adcock repeated Marc Benioff's question: 'Are we not building robots but creating a new species?' and agreed.

The ultimate goal of these robots is to possess a new form of intelligence rather than just performing industrial automation tasks. However, it remains unclear whether current humanoid robots can fully replace humans in real environments.

Figure AI has demonstrated its prototype humanoids completing tasks such as tidying and loading dishes into a dishwasher, but these demonstrations took place in controlled environments. The company's Figure 03 humanoid robots successfully sorted over 100,000 parcels via livestream in May 2026 using their in-house AI system Helix-02.

Despite these advancements, researchers expect that the performance of artificial intelligence and its ability to understand physical environments will improve significantly over time. Several companies have announced plans to start mass-producing humanoid robots around 2026 and 2027, with initial deployment at industrial sites and potential expansion into the home market.