Historically, humans have solved their toughest tasks by creating tools capable of withstanding greater strain to undertake the job or augment their abilities. From levers to steam engines and beyond, the structural evolution of machines is almost as remarkable as their ability to improve operational cultures.
In recent times, we have seen machines attain their highest structural complexity, productivity, and best aesthetics yet. The most relevant new technologies today focus on creating high-throughput physical machines and software that ‘thinks’, and, more futuristically, a fusion of both.
From moving machines to intelligent humanoids
Evolving from ‘moving machines’ capable of handling repetitive tasks to intelligent machines is a century-long goal for robotics. The rapid growth in this sector over the past half-decade, with a $218 billion projection for 2031, is driven by expectations that advancements in AI will extend to robotics and expedite the development of intelligent robots.
Current prototypes are robots capable of taking initiatives or executing tasks more efficiently with less supervision. These have been applied in agriculture, industrial-grade production, and healthcare.
Humanoid robots have attracted the most attention due to the excitement around their potential as near-human machines and the signals their development sends for the future of human-machine coexistence.
Tech leaders around the world are contributing to advancing physical AI with optimism about the impact of robotics on humanity.
Physical AI is a department of artificial intelligence specializing in developing AI algorithms and models for locomotive systems. This includes every kind of robot and, at a more advanced level, humans.
Recent developments in this field include Figure AI’s humanoid robot deployments and Tether’s investment in the NEURA, leading the fundraising of up to $1.4 billion in one of the largest robotics and physical AI investment rounds on record.
Physical AI researchers are exploring future-proof strategies to develop intelligent, safe humanoid robots that can collaborate with humans, undertake humanly impossible tasks, and handle routine tasks more efficiently.
The strongest case for AI-powered humanoid robots is that they complement human power. A World Economic Forum (WEF) report projects shifts in work roles. Humanoid robots increase the workforce, take over repetitive, strenuous, and boring roles, allowing humans to pursue more interesting career paths.
This way, superintelligent humanoid robots will lead sector-wide transformations beyond current imagination and uniquely transform the world.
In theory, it creates the ideal conditions for an improved global economy and a higher quality of life. This theory is challenged by the dystopian vision of a machine-dominated world in which humans become less relevant. However, history suggests otherwise. Every major wave of automation, from the industrial revolution to the rise of computers, initially sparked fears of human redundancy. Yet each ultimately created more opportunities than it eliminated.
Super-human advancements with physical AI
In ideal operations, physical AI will serve as a lever for humans as well. While progress in robotics is loudest, efforts to directly augment human abilities with physical AI are also yielding remarkable results. Brain-computer interfaces can now accurately decode speech in paralyzed and speech-impaired individuals through intracortical implants that detect brain activity. And this is only a ‘start’. Projections from leaders in this space give insight into the trajectory of this technology.
In a recent fireside chat with NEURA Robotics CEO and founder David Reger, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino noted, “the evolution of robotics that Neura is making is going to allow testing and building of a framework[…] where the real impact is in the real world. Everything starts digital, but to see the true potential, we will see robots roaming the streets, helping people, and being part of society. It has to happen safely, it has to be transparent.”
Physical AI products designed for direct human integration are being developed differently, with a focus on ergonomics, a minimalist aesthetic, and performance. EVO, Tether’s arm leading the charge for human advancement through intelligent technologies, also shared plans for non-invasive implants that maintain high productivity and offer greater composability.
Technologies like these will allow humans to leverage high-level physical AI technologies to attain the same technical abilities as humanoid robots and outperform them by combining machine and raw human intelligence.
AI robotics in non-user-controlled infrastructures
Resource efficiency, data sovereignty, and surveillance are some of the biggest ethical considerations of Physical AI after safety and responsibility. The infrastructure line-up for Software and Physical AI relies heavily on managed systems, blurring the lines of control and governance.
Who is really in charge? The end user, developer, or proprietors of the centralized infrastructure that powers the product? The result is a product with multiple points of failure, disruptions, and most importantly, operational risks.
Physical AI solutions will be used by billions of people worldwide; they should therefore not be built on limited, slow, and centralized infrastructures. This necessitates localized or truly decentralized AI solutions. Local-first AI solutions like Tether’s QVAC also prioritize resource efficiency, since users are expected to provide the core infrastructure. QVAC is a modular, highly efficient, local-first AI platform that runs anywhere. Tether regards it as the invisible intelligence engine of the 21st century.
Open-sourcing and aligning intelligent robots for co-existence with humans
Yann LeCun, Chief AI scientist at Meta, notes that open-sourcing AI development is the answer to the most pressing ethical challenges of AI applications. According to LeCun:
“The magic of open research is that you accelerate progress by involving more people[…] the biggest danger of AI isn’t ‘bad behavior’ […] It’s that every digital interaction in our future will be mediated by AI. In that world, diverse open-source systems let users choose their own biases.”
Open-sourced (systemic decentralization) and local-first (Infrastructural decentralization) solutions are the only path to developing ethically aligned Physical AI capable of co-existing with humans as intended. A successful physical AI solution is expected to tick the check boxes of safety, resource efficiency, true user control, and tamper-proofness. To do this, it must embrace transparent development procedures and function without gatekeepers.
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