WTF?! Does the increasing pace of humanoid robot and AI advancement concern you? Here's a story that could exacerbate those concerns. Figure AI, the startup backed by the likes of Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, is being sued by its former head of product safety who claims he was released from his role after warning executives about the robots' safety risks. He even claimed the machines were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.
The case has been filed in the Northern District of California by Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer. He alleges that he was dismissed from Figure AI in September after lodging safety complaints about the company's humanoid robots.
Gruendel's lawyers, who describe him as a "whistleblower," say he warned CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg about the robots' skull-crushing lethal capabilities. He said that one had already carved a quarter-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.
Gruendel says he had been asked to prepare a safety roadmap for a presentation to two prospective investors, but had warned executives not to "downgrade" his work.
The safety engineer claims that the plan he presented was "gutted" in the same month that Figure AI closed a big investment round – a move he believes could have mislead backers and be interpreted as fraudulent.
Gruendel says his warnings were treated as inconveniences and obstacles, rather than obligations, and that his termination was blamed on a "vague" change...
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