Melania Trump shares the spotlight with a robot at an education and technology event

NPR | By The Associated Press

Published March 25, 2026 at 11:29 PM MDT

First lady Melania Trump arrives, accompanied by a robot, to attend the "Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit," with other first spouses, at the White House, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Washington.

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump often commands the attention of any room she enters but all eyes — and cameras — were trained on her humanoid companion on Wednesday.

The robot accompanied the first lady to the White House East Room for the final day of a summit she had convened with counterparts from around the world through her Fostering the Future Together global initiative. The group has been discussing ways to empower children using education, innovation and technology, including artificial intelligence.

Melania Trump and the humanoid walked slowly side by side along the red carpet from the opposite end of the hallway. The first lady paused just before entering the East Room while the robot walked around the table with the panelists and took up a position in the center of the room.

It took a moment to scan the audience before speaking.

"Thank you, first lady Melania Trump, for inviting me to the White House. It is an honor to be at Fostering the Future Together's global coalition inaugural meeting," it said.

"I'm Figure 03, a humanoid built for the United States of America," it continued. "I am grateful to be part of this historic movement to empower children with technology and education."

"Welcome," it said before offering similar greetings in 10 other languages. The robot then thanked everyone and retraced its steps back down the red carpet.

The first lady thanked the robot for joining her, adding: "It's fair to state, you are my first American-made humanoid guest in the White House."

The startup robotics company Figure AI, based in Sunnyvale, California, introduced Figure 03 in October 2025 as its third-generation humanoid robot for people to use at home for help with such household tasks as laundry, cleaning and washing dishes, according to its website and company literature.

CEO Brett Adcock said on social media he was "proud to see F.03 make history as the first humanoid robot in the White House."

The startup is competing with others, including Boston Dynamics and Elon Musk's Tesla, as well as a number of companies in China, in building robots that look human-like and do some of the things that people do.