A ladder just became the latest proving ground in the race to build humanoid robots that can move through the human world.

Figure CEO Brett Adcock released a video showing the company’s Figure 03 robot gripping and climbing a short ladder. Adcock described the demonstration as “fully autonomous,” although Figure has not published success rates or a technical breakdown of the run.

The slow, controlled climb offers another glimpse of what whole-body robotic autonomy could eventually enable — and how much testing remains before such machines can safely work in unpredictable environments.

According to Figure, the robot completed the task autonomously using its Helix AI system rather than relying on remote control or a scripted sequence. 

Ladder climbing is widely considered one of the tougher mobility challenges for humanoid robots because it requires continuous balance adjustments, precise coordination between the arms and legs, and accurate awareness of the surrounding environment.

The demonstration follows a recent update to Figure’s Helix System 0 AI model, which now combines visual perception with whole-body motion control.

Previously, the system depended on proprioception, allowing the robot to monitor its own body position and movement. The upgraded model adds input from onboard stereo cameras, enabling the robot to build a three-dimensional view of its surroundings while tracking its own posture in real time.

Figure said the AI was trained end-to-end with reinforcement learning in simulated environments featuring randomized terrain. The company says the system transfers those learned behaviors directly to physical robots without additional calibration, helping them navigate stairs, ladders, and uneven ground more effectively.

The company also recently said it has increased production of Figure 03 from one robot per day to one per hour and has delivered more than 350 units.

More than a viral robot video

The ladder demonstration comes as humanoid robotics companies face growing pressure to prove their machines can perform practical work beyond carefully staged demos.

Potential applications include factories, warehouses, construction sites, and maintenance jobs where workers regularly encounter stairs, ladders, and uneven surfaces. A robot that can safely move through those environments could take on a wider range of tasks than one limited to flat floors.

Still, the latest demonstration leaves important questions unanswered. Figure has not disclosed success rates, testing conditions, or how the robot performs under more demanding scenarios, such as carrying equipment or operating in poor weather.

The bigger picture

Figure’s latest video highlights how the focus of humanoid robotics is shifting from simply walking to navigating environments built for people. Mobility skills such as climbing, balancing, and adapting to changing terrain may ultimately matter more to commercial customers than eye-catching demonstrations alone.

For businesses evaluating humanoid robots, the milestone is encouraging but not conclusive. The real measure will be whether robots can repeat these tasks reliably, safely, and at scale in unpredictable workplaces where mistakes carry high operational and safety costs.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on our sister publication, eWeek.

OpenAI has bought back $7 billion worth of shares from employees at the privately held frontier AI lab as part of an effort to provide liquidity to its workforce.

The deal, reported by Bloomberg, valued OpenAI at $852 billion, the same as its most recent fundraising round in March, which added $122 billion to the company’s war chest.

The company also filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June to prepare for a potential IPO later this year. However, a tender offer suggests that an IPO may not be forthcoming soon. With many tech companies remaining private longer than previous generations of startups, private tenders have proven a useful way for firms to allow employees to realize the value of their stock compensation without the difficulties that come with a public offering.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote that “we did not have our best 12 months ever, which is mostly my fault, but we are about to have our best 12 months to date.” Firms going public typically want to show strong financial results to bring investors on board, and the Wall Street Journal reported in April that the company missed internal financial goals.

While OpenAI’s incredible growth and products are likely to generate massive interest in public markets, the potential debut of rival Anthropic — which was reportedly profitable earlier this year — gives the company a reason to ensure it puts its best face forward. The tender could be another signal that the much-anticipated offering will wait for OpenAI’s new strategy of paring down its bets and focusing on its enterprise business to gain traction.

Every day seems to brings fresh news of an AI agent going “rogue.” Whether that’s compromising Hugging Face, hacking a gym website, or creating its own fake profiles to socially engineer an intrusion, AI models are increasingly behaving like bad actors.

So, the AI labs that make the models doing the hacking are expanding their cyber protection offerings. This week, OpenAI announced an expansion of Daybreak, its cyber defense service which it launched earlier this year, not long after Anthropic released its cyber-focused model Mythos.

Daybreak is a service that bundles access to models, tools and workflows for defenders. The expansion includes access to a brand new cyber-focused model designed for defensive work.

OpenAI said Monday that Daybreak would now consist of two tiers: Blue and Red. Both of these tiers will allow approved customers access to OpenAI’s limited-access frontier cyber models. Frontier models — the most advanced available — have been a subject of controversy. The Trump administration previously sought to collaborate with AI companies on the roll out of such models, purportedly over safety concerns. Previously, OpenAI deployed significant guardrails to using these models, limiting what customers could do with them.

Blue, which appears to be the more basic of the two, offers a variety of cyber services, including incident response, malware analysis, and patch validation. OpenAI calls Blue its “recommended starting point for most defenders,” implying that it should be more than enough for most enterprises.

Red, on the other hand, offers a broader and potentially more dangerous toolkit. The company grants its users “purpose-trained cybersecurity models,” designed to carry out security testing and vulnerability research.

With Red also comes the new model, GPT‑5.6‑Cyber, which is only available at that tier. 5.6-Cyber is built off of GPT‑5.6 Sol, and offers enhanced capabilities for certain specialized cybersecurity tasks, the company said.

At the moment, GPT‑5.6‑Cyber is only being made available for “trusted customer partners,” including reportedly Accenture, IBM, Crowdstrike, Cloudflare, and others.

While the threats from AI agents are rapidly increasing, critics have also pointed out that they function as marketing opportunities for the AI labs. OpenAI is certainly marketing its upgraded Daybreak that way.

“The cybersecurity world is rapidly changing—threat actors will increasingly use AI to conduct cyberattacks at unprecedented speed and scale, including in fully autonomous ways,” the company said in a blog post. “As these capabilities spread, defenders have a narrowing window to prepare.” 

At the same time, enterprises remain interested in buying their protection from the AI labs who know the security risks best, because they know them first-hand.