Speaking at an NVIDIA GTC panel, Figure CEO Brett Adcock dismissed teleoperation as "soy stuff" and claimed the real race is for general-purpose AI, not manufacturing, in the US vs. China competition.
With pre-orders for its $20,000 NEO robot open, 1X is transparent about its strategy: early adopters will use a human-piloted "Expert Mode" to help train the robot's AI, a "social contract" built on a surprisingly lightweight, tendon-driven body.
Following days of speculation, 1X has officially announced its NEO humanoid robot is available for pre-order as a consumer product, priced at $20,000 or $499/month. The launch confirms the company's strategy to use a "human-in-the-loop" model to train its AI in real-world homes.
On the eve of its highly anticipated October 28 reveal, 1X hosted a pre-launch event at its Palo Alto HQ, offering hands-on teleoperation demos to tech figures like Andrej Karpathy, Carl Pei, and Robert Scoble. Details from the event reinforce speculation that the company is launching a home-based, teleoperated early adopter program.