Figure AI’s F.03 humanoid robot lost a live-streamed 10-hour package sorting contest to a human intern named Aime.
The company organized the “Man vs. Machine” challenge to compare its humanoid robot against a person in a warehouse-style sorting task. Both competitors had to detect a barcode, pick up a package, and place the barcode down on a conveyor belt.
Aime sorted 12,924 packages during the 10-hour contest, while the F.03 robot completed 12,732 packages.
That gave the human intern a lead of 192 packages. Aime averaged 2.79 seconds per package, while the robot averaged 2.83 seconds per package.
The contest remained close. The robot reportedly overtook Aime around hour five after the intern took a bathroom break, but the human later regained the lead.
Aime received meal breaks and paid rest breaks under California labor law.
By the end of the contest, he reportedly had blisters on his fingers and said his left forearm felt broken. The F.03 robot did not face the same physical limits and can run across shifts, so the result from one 10-hour contest may not reflect performance over a full workweek.
Figure AI had already drawn attention after livestreaming its humanoid robots sorting packages over longer shifts. Earlier reports said the robots were sorting packages at roughly human-level speed during an eight-hour autonomous demonstration.
The result suggests humanoid robots are getting closer to human speed in narrow warehouse tasks, but people may still hold a small edge in physical work that requires speed, endurance, and consistent handling.
The picture may be different for office jobs. Microsoft AI Chief Executive Mustafa Suleyman has predicted that AI could automate many desk-based professional tasks within 12 to 18 months, including work done by lawyers, accountants, project managers, and marketers.
For now, Figure AI’s contest shows a clear contrast. A humanoid robot lost a close race to a tired intern by only four hundredths of a second per package, while software-based AI tools are already moving quickly into white-collar work.