HARDWARE

Figure to debut next-gen humanoid robot

It’s been a busy month for humanoid robotics. Weeks after notching a $1 billion series C funding round on a $39 billion valuation, Figure announced that its next-generation robot, Figure 03, would debut this week. 

In the video posted to X on Tuesday teasing the debut, Figure 03 appeared to have cameras in its hands and behind its head, as well as “inductive charging” feet. In a post on X, Figure founder Brett Adcock said, “Excited to unveil on Thursday the best humanoid robot the world has ever seen.” 

On Monday, Adcock also noted in an X post that Figure’s robots have been working on the BMW X3 body shop production line for 5 months, 10 hours per day, claiming to be the “first in the world to do this with humanoid robots.”

But not every robot is able to throw hands. On Tuesday, The Information reported that Tesla backed away from plans to build 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots in 2025 after facing severe technical challenges, specifically related to the robots’ hands. 

It’s not the first time rumors have been reported that Tesla has struggled to meet its lofty goals. The company had reportedly only made progress on a few hundred robots in July due to production bottlenecks, turnover and technical issues.

Though Figure’s production goals are also ambitious, aiming to ship 100,000 robots by 2029, the market potential might be massive. Morgan Stanley estimates that the humanoid robotics market could reach $5 trillion by 2050, with increased adoption in the supply chain, maintenance and manufacturing sectors. However, that adoption has a long way to go, and won’t kick into gear for more than a decade, Morgan Stanley projects. 

Still, the long timeline isn’t scaring investors: Chinese firm Unitree Robotics announced plans to go public at a valuation of $7 billion in September, and startups Apptronik and Agility Robotics each raised upwards of $400 million earlier this year. 

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CULTURE

The AI video race heats up

The AI video wars continue. On Tuesday, xAI released Imagine v0.9, the company’s latest video generation model. 

In a post on X, the company noted that the model has improved visual quality, motion and audio generation capabilities, as well as the ability to add dynamic camera effects such as shifting focus. 

The announcement makes the Elon Musk-owned startup the latest entrant into the race to create realistic AI videos: 

• Last week, OpenAI debuted Sora 2, its latest video generation model with better world simulation and physics understanding, as well as released the Sora App, an invite-only social media platform for its AI-generated videos that rapidly shot to the top of the app store. 

• Meta, in mid-September, released Vibes, a short-form app for its own AI-generated videos, which didn’t recieve quite as kind a treatment as Sora did. 

But as these firms continue to compete with each other, they may have another challenger on their hands: Hollywood. 

Targeting Sora, The Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin called on OpenAI to take "immediate and decisive action” to protect creators against copyright infringement. 

“Since Sora 2’s release, videos that infringe our members’ films, shows, and characters have proliferated on OpenAI’s service and across social media,” Rivkin said in a statement. “While OpenAI clarified it will ‘soon’ offer rightsholders more control over character generation, they must acknowledge it remains their responsibility – not rightsholders’ – to prevent infringement on the Sora 2 service.” 

The backlash highlights the growing tension between AI firms and creators as copyright cases mount against companies like Anthropic, Stability, Perplexity and more. It also signals that Hollywood might not be so accepting of bringing AI to the silver screen, even as developers’ jobs and representation for AI creators like Tilly Norwood. 

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ENTERPRISE

Anthropic adds IBM to enterprise AI bid

Anthropic is partnering with IBM in its latest bid to boost enterprise AI adoption. 

The companies announced on Tuesday that IBM would integrate Anthropic’s Claude models throughout its software portfolio, starting with its integrated development environment for software. Financial terms of the deal weren’t revealed. 

IBM will also create a guide to help businesses create and deploy AI agents as part of the partnership, including details on how to integrate Model Context Protocol, Anthropic’s open-source standard introduced last year. 

Among the 6,000 early adopters within IBM who tested the development environment, the company claims to have seen productivity gains of 45% while maintaining code quality and security. 

“Enterprises are looking for AI they can actually trust with their code, their data, and their day-to-day operations,” Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger said in a press release. “Claude has become the go-to AI for developers at the world's largest companies because of our focus on safety and reliability.” 

The deal marks yet another enterprise feather in Anthropic’s cap, which began in earnest in September of 2024 with the launch of Claude for Enterprise. On Monday, it announced a partnership with Deloitte to offer its Claude models to the firm’s 470,000 employees, which includes the establishment of a ​​“Claude Center of Excellence” to guide adoption. 

So far, Anthropic’s bid for the enterprise market seems to be working. A July report from Menlo Ventures found that Anthropic holds 32% of the enterprise AI market, ahead of OpenAI at 25% and Google at 20%, largely due to Claude’s code generation capabilities and the popularity of Model Context Protocol amid the boom in AI agent adoption.

LINKS

• Nvidia will continue to sponsor H-1B visas, CEO Jensen Huang says

• AI debt rises to $1.2 trillion, beating out banks in investment-grade market

• Anthropic to open offices in Bengaluru, explore partnership with Reliance Industries

• Law AI startup EvenUp raises $150 million Series E at $2 billion valuation

• Insurance AI firm FurtherAI raises $25 million Series A from a16z

• Qualcomm acquires Italian startup Arduino in robotics push

• Anthropic Petri: An open source auditing tool for researchers to test AI model behavior. 

• Apps in ChatGPT: Unveiled at Dev Day, users can now build apps for use directly inside of ChatGPT. 

• Gemini 2.5 Computer Use Model: A specialized model to power agents with lower latency, complete with visual understanding and reasoning capabilities. 

• Dataiku Agent Hub: A centralized workspace to collaboratively develop, deploy and use AI agents. 

• NirvanAI: An AI platform by Terzo to manage contracts and make faster financial decisions.

• Scale AI: Senior or Staff Applied AI Engineer, Agents

• Rivian: Staff Generative AI Engineer

• SAP: Senior AI/ML Scientist, Generative AI and Knowledge Graphs

• Microsoft: Principal Machine Learning Engineer

GAMES

A QUICK POLL BEFORE YOU GO