With rapid advances in artificial intelligence, significant breakthroughs are also taking place in the robotics industry. While humanoid robots are expected to be integrated into the workforce and become household assistants in the near future, Robert Gruendel, a former product safety specialist at Figure AI, has filed a lawsuit against the company, highlighting the potential dangers of these robots. Gruendel claims he was fired for raising safety concerns.
Shocking allegation regarding humanoid robots
The lawsuit, which addresses the destructive power of robots, includes the results of impact and speed tests conducted in July by Gruendel, the company’s former head of product safety. Gruendel reported that the robots moved at “superhuman speed” and produced forces reaching “twenty times the human threshold for pain.”
These force values are reported to be more than twice the force required to fracture an adult human skull. The complaint states that during one test, a malfunctioning robot created a gash of approximately 6 millimeters in a steel refrigerator door, and that a human employee was in the immediate vicinity.
Following these findings, Gruendel developed a comprehensive security roadmap detailing the sensor limitations, force ceilings, software safety protocols, and testing procedures necessary for robots to safely adapt to the workplace.
However, Gruendel claims that this security plan was “drastically trimmed” by company management, and that critical measures were disabled because they “slowed down product development.”
Gruendel, believing the security vulnerabilities had reached a level that misled investors, directly addressed the situation to CEO Brett Adcock and lead engineer Kyle Edelberg. Gruendel states that management dismissed these warnings as unimportant and treated him negatively, claiming they made the job difficult. Just a few days after presenting his clearest and most documented objections to management, he was abruptly dismissed.
The Figure AI front, however, completely denies Gruendel’s allegations. The company’s statement states that Gruendel was fired for “poor performance,” and argues that the accusations in the lawsuit are baseless allegations that could easily be refuted in court.
This lawsuit against Figure AI brings to mind a video that circulated on social media a few months ago, in which a robot experiencing a software malfunction suddenly went out of control and wreaked havoc on its surroundings. A similar malfunction in such a powerful robot, intended for use in both factories and homes, could have far more serious consequences.
