At a White House global summit, First Lady Melania Trump was accompanied by a black-and-white humanoid robot that spoke 11 languages, including Bengali. The machine, built by robotics company Figure, was introduced during the inaugural meeting of the Fostering the Future Together global coalition, which brought together First Spouses from 45 countries.
Named Figure 3, the humanoid greeted attendees — among them France’s Brigitte Macron and Israel’s Sara Netanyahu — with a wave and the word “welcome” in 11 languages. A White House pool report said the robot said “Swagatam” in what was described as Bengali. The list of languages included English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Slovene, Ukrainian and Georgian.
Figure markets the model as an autonomous household assistant. The robot is covered in mesh fabric and equipped with cameras in its hands and tactile sensors to help operators identify objects. Company footage shows Figure 3 performing chores such as loading a dishwasher, doing laundry, picking up toys and folding clothes.
“Figure 3, thank you for joining me,” the First Lady said at the event. “It’s fair to state you are my first American-made humanoid guest in the White House.”
In her keynote, Trump laid out three pillars for shaping the next generation: using AI to personalize learning, the rise of humanoid educators as at-home tools, and positioning technology and education as engines of the U.S. economy. She predicted a shift in form as well as function: “The future of AI is ‘personified’ — it will be formed in the shape of humans,” moving from mobile devices to humanoids operating in real-world environments.
The summit gathered policymakers and private-sector leaders as governments increasingly treat artificial intelligence as an economic and strategic priority, the White House said.
