Physical AI sounds like a contradiction in terms. Physical AI is humanoid robots putting in a day’s work on the Hyundai factory floor, as Google DeepMind, Boston Dynamics, and the Korean automaker announced they would do in the coming months. Physical AI lets autonomous systems like cameras, robots, and self-driving cars perceive, understand, reason, and perform or orchestrate complicated actions in the real world. It is no accident that the companies making the loudest noise about physical AI are chipmakers, including Nvidia and ARM. The former announced a whole new open source line of AI models targeting autonomous systems; the latter debuted a Physical AI division at CES.