What Is Physical AI, and What Does It Mean for Government?

Source Domain: www.govtech.com

A few months back, when all eyes were on Davos, Switzerland, and the outcomes from the World Economic Forum meetings on global topics of high interest, this article came out covering what CEOs (were) talking about from Arjun Kharpal, CNBC’s senior technology correspondent.

One particular section caught my eye that was unexpected:

“Expect physical AI to be on the tech buzzword list this year. The term refers to applications where AI takes on a physical form, from robotics to driverless cars. My own experience at Davos highlighted just how real this push has become: one evening at dinner, a robot was sitting right at the table.

“EY’s Sharma labeled physical AI the ‘next wave,’ estimating it could be five to six times the market size of agentic AI within five to six years.

“Meanwhile, Sassine Ghazi, CEO of semiconductor design tool company Synopsys, said he initially expected physical AI would come ‘five plus’ years down the road, but it is coming ‘much faster.’”

So here we are in late March, and I am returning to this topic, as I prepare to head to the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

WHAT IS PHYSICAL AI?

Here are some definitions, examples and implications from various sources:

IBM: “What is physical AI?” — “Physical AI refers to artificial intelligence (AI) systems that operate in and interact with the physical world, rather than existing only in software or digital environments.

“Physical AI typically involves the combination of AI models with sensors, actuators and other control systems that allow models to act upon real-world environments, taking models from the realm of bits to the realm of atoms. With AI, advanced physical systems can now perceive the environment, reason with the power of a large language model (LLM), act accordingly, and then learn from the outcome of that action.”

NVIDIA: “What is Physical AI?” — “Physical AI lets autonomous systems…

Source