AI outfit Hugging Face has waddled into cheap robotics with Microduck, a $399 AI toy aimed at open-source developers.
According to Techcrunch The outfit unveiled the duck-like robot on Thursday, promising that it ships before Christmas.
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue said the Microduck is an “open-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning.”
The 25cm duck can waddle, pick things up with its beak, recover after falling, crouch and roller skate. It can lift up to 800 grams.
“Welcome to the era of open-source affordable robots to democratise physical AI and world models!” Delangue said.
Hugging Face is best known as a developer platform for open model weights, but it bought French startup Pollen Robotics in April 2025. The deal was meant to push affordable open-source AI hardware beyond slide decks and into something with motors.
A couple of months later, Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics launched Reachy Mini, a small desktop robot. They now sell the $499 Reachy Mini, powered by a Raspberry Pi, and the $399 Reachy Mini Lite, powered by a Mac or PC.
Microduck sees the world using a camera, lidar sensors and two inertial measurement units. Those IMUs measure and report movement, helping the little plastic bird stay upright rather than faceplanting across the carpet.
Pollen Robotics said Microduck behaviours can be trained in simulation and deployed directly on the robot. Developers can fine-tune the bot, retrain it and redeploy it using tools published on GitHub.
The SDK, simulation and full reinforcement learning training stack are all available for developers who fancy teaching a robot duck fresh tricks. The privacy side is less cuddly, since Microduck carries a camera into homes, bedrooms and other private spaces.
Delangue previously told TechCrunch that bots running open source models were better for privacy than “a black box system” controlled by a few organisations. He said that was true “especially if these organisations’ CEO is not the most stable person in the world.”
Open source provides developers with auditability and control, but it does not guarantee that sensitive data remains private. Apps installed on top of the model can access cameras and microphones and then send data to external services, depending on how they are built.
The launch comes as Hugging Face is reportedly set to be acquired by Nvidia at a $13 billion valuation. Nvidia and Hugging Face have worked together for years, with Nvidia supplying the startup’s infrastructure since at least 2023.
Both companies have publicly backed open-source AI, which suits Nvidia while it sells the chips that keep the whole circus running.
