Faced with an aging population of older gen humanoids (future problems), US robotics manufacturer Figure decided to have several of its F.02 robots dive into a 75-ton vat of molten steel to decommission them, Terminator style (one lowered on a chain even gives a thumbs-up, just like in the movie). After finding a steel plant in Finland willing to allow the lithium-ion batteried humanoids to leap into a steel vat (none in the US or Mexico would allow it), Figure made this video, complete with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Get to the choppa! “That’s from Predator.” Whatever.

Decommissioning a fleet of robots full of custom-built actuators and other intellectual property is no easy task. We needed to dispose of the robots in a way that protected our proprietary hardware. Disassembling each robot would take our technical staff so much time that it would delay the launch of F.04.

So we asked the internet: what should we do? The resounding answer came from an unlikely source: Arnold Schwarzenegger, who told us to melt them. We reached out to Arnold, and when he said he wanted to be involved, we put everything in motion.

Was this all a gigantic publicity stunt from start to finish? Probably. Is it the most responsible way to decommission old robots? Almost certainly not. Has everybody been waiting to see an actual robot dive into a vat of molten steel ever since Terminator 2 came out? There’s no question. *crosses off bucket list, reviews rest of list* Okay, do we have any credible mermaid sightings?