Tech giants pivot from chatbots to physical AI applications including smart glasses and robotaxis as Waymo expands nationwide and Tesla launches cheaper autonomous rides, while the industry develops world models and autonomous agents amid growing regulatory debates and challenges to Nvidia's chip dominance.
Jibo, the $899 social robot with face recognition and relationship-building capabilities, finally hits the market after three years of delays since its $3.5 million crowdfunding success, as MIT-founded Jibo Inc. attempts to pioneer the first consumer social robot despite early performance concerns.
Boston Dynamics partners with Google DeepMind at CES 2026 to integrate Gemini AI foundation models with Atlas humanoid robots, targeting manufacturing transformation in automotive and other industries through advanced visual-language-action capabilities.
AI companies abandon massive language models in favor of smaller, specialized systems while racing to develop revolutionary 'world models' that understand 3D environments, as enterprise adoption accelerates through new protocols connecting AI agents directly to business systems.
MIT researchers develop a bumblebee-sized robot weighing under 1 gram that flaps its wings 330 times per second, performs 10 consecutive somersaults in 11 seconds using AI-powered flight control, and could revolutionize search-and-rescue operations by navigating tight spaces within the next decade.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urge Americans to pursue manufacturing careers offering $70,000-$90,000 starting salaries without college degrees, as the industry faces a staggering 1.9 million worker shortage while positioning itself as crucial for AI competition and national prosperity.
Robotics companies face a massive 100,000-year data shortage compared to AI language models, prompting industry leaders like Waymo and Ambi Robotics to combine traditional engineering with AI to create commercial robots that generate real-world data while performing tasks like driving taxis and sorting packages.
MIT researchers unveil revolutionary voice-controlled robot system that transforms spoken commands into fully assembled furniture within five minutes using AI-powered 3D generation and magnetic modular components, drastically outpacing traditional 3D printing while reducing waste through reusable parts.
Excelsior Sciences secures $95 million to revolutionize drug discovery by replacing human chemists with AI-powered robots that break down FDA-approved molecules into 'smart bloccs' and reassemble them into new pharmaceutical compounds, promising faster and cheaper development while reshoring manufacturing to the US.
The Department of Energy launches AMP2, an AI-powered robot lab that operates 24/7 to accelerate research on bacteria and fungi for producing chemicals, energy, and biomaterials, positioning the U.S. to compete in a bioeconomy projected to grow from $4 trillion to $30 trillion by 2050.