Melania Trump Is Accompanied by a Talking Humanoid Robot at the White House Tech Summit
An unexpected guest accompanied Melania Trump to the Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit on Wednesday: a Figure 03 humanoid robot.
During the event, the first lady envisioned a future where AI-powered humanoid robots — introduced as a lecturer named “Plato” — give students personalized and instant access to human knowledge, including philosophy and art.
The Figure 03 robot is made by a Silicon Valley robotics company Illustration of AIwhich launched its third-generation humanoid robot in October last year. The Figure 03 robot costs about $25,000, according to Forbes.
Figure 03 was designed for people to use in their homes, with demo videos showing it folding laundry, lifting eggs from a box, using a washing machine and delivering drinks to its owners sitting by the pool. It has also been shown in corporate use cases as a package receiver and sender. Using an AI engine called Helix, it can perform these tasks automatically and respond to your voice commands.
The humanoid was seen walking slowly down the red carpet at the tech conference and delivering the opening remarks.
“I am happy to be a part of this historic organization to equip children with technology and education,” said the Figure 03 humanoid robot. Then it said “welcome” in different languages.
The first lady later said that humanoid robots with AI capabilities could be present in children’s homes as an aid in their education to “develop analytical and problem-solving skills and accept in real time the student’s pace, prior knowledge and emotional state.”
The two-day conference will host leaders from 45 nations and 28 technology organizations, and aims to “equip children with education and technology,” according to a statement from the White House. The guests included representatives of major technology companies such as Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and an AI data analytics company Palantir.
The conference is part of the first-time mother’s Be Best: Fostering the Future program, which aims to help children learn using cutting-edge technology. It is introduced in 2018 as an awareness campaign aimed at combating cyberbullying and helping children affected by the opioid crisis.
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon mentioned AI as one of the priorities of the Department of Education on the first day of the conference.
“If we can scale these resources effectively by investing in AI infrastructure and training, we can provide expert instruction in many fields, to employ more people at a lower cost,” McMahon said Tuesday at a roundtable.
According to McMahon, the Department of Education has already committed millions of dollars to support the use of AI in schools.
The event follows criticism of the Trump administration’s 2025 executive order to disband the Department of Education. Although the Department of Education has not yet been officially abolished, it has undergone major policy changes, funding cuts and staff reductions.
The presentation of the humanoid robot at the conference caused a major backlash from many who are aware of the role of technology in the classroom. Critics have taken to social media to voice concerns that the machines could end up replacing teachers, robbing the education system of vital human interaction, and leading to more layoffs and cost-cutting.
In one Huffington Post Instagram post featuring a robot, commentators expressed deep skepticism, with one user commenting sarcastically, “Good, firing teachers in favor of a robot,” while another rejected the idea outright, saying, “No, I don’t want to think about a world with emotionless robots teaching our children.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Watch this: Figure 03: Everything We Know About the New Humanoid Robot
