Figure Launches Index to Pay People for Videos That Train Robots

The app

People can apply through the free Index app (opens in a new tab) to become a Creator. Accepted contributors receive a recording device, capture approved tasks, and get paid by the minute. The same app also lets homes and businesses apply to book a Creator for help with chores and other work.

Figure says Index has reached 264,000 downloads and more than 44,000 weekly active users across 108 countries. Those creators have uploaded more than 16 million videos, and the company says about 30 minutes of new footage arrives every second.

That reach is the reason Index could matter for robots. A model trained only in a lab sees a narrow set of rooms, objects, and ways to complete a task. Videos from many people can show the same job in unfamiliar kitchens, shops, factories, and offices.

The data pipeline

Figure says each 1,000 hours in Index contains 373 kinds of tasks, 1,146 manipulated objects, and 116 environments. Those counts are Figure's own, and its claim that Index is the world's largest or most diverse robot training dataset has not been independently verified.

Before a recording reaches Helix, automated filters check its technical, visual, and task quality. Human reviewers look for fraud. Figure then removes near-duplicate clips, balances the remaining mix, and adds text that describes each action from broad steps down to smaller movements.

In plain terms, Index is meant to turn millions of ordinary recordings into organized examples a robot can learn from. Figure says early internal results support the approach, but it has not yet shown how much Index improves Helix or released performance results tied to the new dataset.

What contributors should know

Index is available on iPhone and Android. The iPhone listing requires iOS 18 or later and an age of 18 or older. Figure says demand is high and applicants may wait for access. It has not published the per-minute pay rate or how often a submitted recording is accepted.

Recording inside a home or workplace also creates a privacy tradeoff. Figure's Index privacy policy (opens in a new tab) covers location data and photos, video, audio, or other recordings of a creator and their surroundings. It allows personal data to be disclosed or sold to commercial purchasers for uses including marketing, analytics, research, and product development. The policy also provides a process to opt out of those sales.

What comes next

Figure says it has paid Index creators $15 million and plans to spend more than $1 billion on data and computing over the next 12 months. Its larger goal is to build a network that can send people to complete tasks today and, eventually, send robots instead.