{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0317","record_version":1,"title":"Figure AI whistleblower lawsuit alleges humanoid robots could fracture skulls","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":59.6,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":20.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":2.56,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: CNBC · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":3,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: CNBC · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"3daaff7b4de993aa2f4ff4ddd9182852785f951f4f0e8cd9cc0a9d73a5abb7cf"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"Figure AI","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2025-11-21","incident_class":"physical_safety","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"Figure AI, a developer of humanoid robots, was sued in a federal court in California by its former principal robotic safety engineer, Robert Gruendel. He alleges that he warned executives the robots were powerful enough to fracture a human skull, and cited a robot that carved a gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction. He says he was fired in September, days after lodging safety complaints, and that he had warned against downgrading a safety roadmap shown to prospective investors. Figure says he was terminated for poor performance and that the allegations are falsehoods it will discredit in court. Gruendel seeks economic, compensatory and punitive damages. The sources report no injury to any person, and the claims remain unproven allegations.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"Test: minor (contained to one deployer or one evaluation, no third party touched). Fact: the only physical effect stated is a gash in a steel refrigerator door during one malfunction, and no third party is stated to be affected.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/21/figure-ai-sued.html","publisher":"CNBC","date":"2025-11-21","type":"press","title":"Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull' - CNBC","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-11-18-11e6","publisher":"OECD AI Policy Observatory","date":"2025-11-24","type":"press","title":"Lawsuit Alleges Figure AI's Humanoid Robots Pose Lethal Safety Risks - OECD AI Policy Observatory","archived_url":null},{"url":"https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/figure-ai-faces-whistleblower-lawsuit","publisher":"Interesting Engineering","date":"2025-11-24","type":"press","title":"Figure robot hand could 'fracture a human skull,' whistleblower warns - Interesting Engineering","archived_url":null}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","context.country":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup's former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company's robots \"were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.\""}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"the claims against Figure focus on immediate physical dangers that could emerge as robots become more capable and more widely deployed."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In the complaint, Gruendel's lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot's lethal capabilities, and said one \"had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.\""}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In the complaint, Gruendel's lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot's lethal capabilities, and said one \"had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.\""}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup's former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company's robots \"were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.\""},{"source_index":0,"quote":"In the complaint, Gruendel's lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot's lethal capabilities, and said one \"had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.\""},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Gruendel's attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his \"most direct and documented safety complaints.\""},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to \"downgrade\" a \"safety road map\" that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"A Figure spokesperson said in an emailed statement that Gruendel was \"terminated for poor performance,\" and that his \"allegations are falsehoods that Figure will thoroughly discredit in court.\""},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"Although the harm has not yet occurred"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The sources are allegations in a lawsuit that the company disputes; no injury to a person is stated and no AI agent action is described, so agent_involved, trigger, root cause, responsible party and detection method are left out. The year of the September firing is not stated in the text and is not filled in; date_occurred is therefore omitted. date_disclosed uses 2025-11-21 from the CNBC article date, which matches the 'filed Friday' wording but is an inference. Country US is inferred from the federal court location in Northern District of California. The severity tier minor is my judgement: the only physical effect stated is one gash in a refrigerator door, with no third party stated as affected. No model, version, harness, tools, controls or remediation are stated, so those fields and the links list are empty. The sources do not say whether any safety plan was actually changed, only what the plaintiff alleges. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: CNBC · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"reached","text":"He says he was fired in September, days after his most direct and documented safety complaints.","quote":"Gruendel's attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his \"most direct and documented safety complaints.\"","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/21/figure-ai-sued.html","https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-11-18-11e6","https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/figure-ai-faces-whistleblower-lawsuit"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Gruendel was fired, days after lodging his safety complaints.","quote":"Gruendel's attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his \"most direct and documented safety complaints.\"","source_index":0,"when":"September"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/21/figure-ai-sued.html","https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-11-18-11e6","https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/figure-ai-faces-whistleblower-lawsuit"]}}