$2.6 billion AI-powered robotics company hired two law firms to suppress independent reporting

After confirming this publication's report from yesterday on Figure AI, Quinn Emanuel offered a quid-pro-quo of deleting the reporting in exchange for an end to legal intimidation.

While this column is not generally written in first person, I need to write a brief note to explain what is at least a temporary removal of a report from yesterday.

Within roughly five hours of publishing an exposé on Figure AI yesterday, the author was sent a cease and desist letter from Lowenstein Sandler LLP on the grounds that the material was confidential. Today, two partners from the law firm Quinn Emanuel followed up with further threats, both by phone and by email.

One of Quinn Emanuel’s partners wrote, with a deadline of 7pm ET today: “You mentioned that this seems like a David vs. Goliath situation.  It doesn’t have to be, provided that you do the right thing by removing from your blog post all content that quotes or was derived from Figure AI Confidential Information, delete it, and make no further use of it.  Please let me know via reply email, by 4 pm PST today (Tuesday, March 5, 2024), that you will do so.”

I am currently seeking counsel — as many lawyers are conflicted with one of Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI, or Figure AI — and am forced to remove the article at this time.

In the mean time, this is what the CEO of Figure AI stated publicly the day before the legal intimidation began.