Physical AI Lab // Episode 0.1 // One-pager
What is physical AI?
From talking to doing
Three key points
- Physical AI is AI that steps out of the screen and acts in the real world: its input is what cameras and sensors see, its output is motor force, and the real world has no undo.
- Acting takes steps: see the scene, plan the motion, drive the motors, and repeat; when something goes wrong halfway it still has to finish (2,000 recovery scenarios for training and testing, R).
- Robots come in many forms and at scale: in 2025 about 5 million industrial robots were at work in the world's factories, and 59% of new installations were in China (O, IFR); physical AI wants them to cope with change.
Evidence: O official · R research · M media
| R | 2,000 | recovery scenarios where a task goes wrong halfway, split for training and testing |
| O | about 5 million | industrial robots running in factories worldwide (2025 stock, +9% year on year) |
| O | 59% | China's share of the industrial robots newly installed worldwide in 2025 |
Further reading
- IFR · Five Million Robots now Operate in Factories Globally
https://ifr.org/ifr-press-releases/news/five-million-robots-now-operate-in-factories-globally - RoboRecover (arXiv 2609.28952)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28952