Figure AI, a small robotics startup based in Sunnyvale, California, reportedly raised $675 million in a new funding round led by Jeff Bezos' venture firm Explore Investments, which committed $100 million. Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia added nearly $299 million between them and both OpenAI and Intel committed smaller amounts. These are serious sums of money from some very high-profile tech industry names, so what's Figure AI making to attract all this attention?

It's making robots. Honest to goodness, looks-like-a-Hollywood movie humanoid robots. Compared to the beefy, threatening shape of previous humanoid robots like Boston Dynamics' famous Atlas, Figure AI's Figure 01 machine looks slightly more inoffensive, with looks that skew to the slim and shiny. Half close your eyes and you'll maybe see a visual echo of Star George Lucas' famous C-3P0. What makes this company's robots different is their aggressive incorporation of AI tech, which explains AI-chip maker Nvidia's inclusion in the recent funding round.

Watching Figure 01 make a coffee using a capsule coffee machine is illuminating. The robot went through 10 hours of training its AI to achieve this task, and that might seem a long time for what what a human thinks is a trivial task. But the dexterity with which the robot picks up the capsule and can wiggle it if it hasn't fallen into place properly is very impressive--and very human-like.

That coffee video shows how AI power could really transform robot workers' capabilities. Many existing robot systems, from giant arm-like car manufacturing robots to more mobile ones like the ones Amazon uses for shelf-stacking, are often limited to following strict, prearranged instructions like "move to point A, pick up package B, take it to shelf C". They can work faster and more consistently than human workers in these roles, and in more dangerous environments for longer periods. But until now the AI that would make a robot truly flexible as a manual worker has lagged behind the smart motor tech that helpsthem roll or even walk around. Figure AI's plan is to change that and get its robots ready for many different jobs, from working in factories to helping out in the home, thanks to mixing-in AI. From Figure 01's coffee-making demo it does, for example, seem plausible that these robots could operate in some butler-ish type roles. 

The company's website also explains why Figure 01 is human shaped. It's all about fitting into the existing human-shaped world, from door handles and tools to stairs and other parts of the home and work environment. And the goal for Figure 01 and following versions is really grandiose: Figure AI says it wants to support emerging economies, create a higher quality of life by freeing up people from dangerous or repetitive jobs and even address "drastic labor shortages" that are affecting some industries. 

To prove it's capable of producing robot tech that's useful in the real world, Figure AI recently struck a deal with BMW to bring its general purpose robots into the car manufacturing process. The experiment will proceed in phases, starting with working out where the robots can be useful, and ultimately ending up with staged deployment of the androids at a car making plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. 

Figure is not alone in pursuing general purpose, AI-powered humanoid robots. And perhaps its biggest competition may end up being an effort from Elon Musk's Tesla car company. Musk's goal is to churn out human-like, smart machines that will ultimately cost less than $20,000. In typical Musk style, he has also explained some grand plans for the Optimus 'bots: they could even transform the global economy, since they could act as an infinite supply of labor. Figure AI seems to be aiming at a more realistic target. But both efforts undoubtedly stir up ethical questions over the use of robots in the workplace, even if recent financial data show the benefits that robots are having on the surprisingly resilient U.S. economy. ​