"AI can do incredible things. So far, though, most of those things have been virtual. If you want a killer article for your bichon frise blog or an expertly crafted letter disputing a parking ticket you probably deserve, chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini can deliver that. All those things are locked into the nebulous world of information, though. They're helpful, but the products of today's large language models (LLMs) and neural networks aren't actually doing much of anything."
"AI's silicon-bound status, however, is beginning to change. The tech is increasingly invading the real world. 2026 is the year that AI gets physical. And that shift has huge implications for the future of the technology-and for the impact when it fails. Call Me a Robot The change started with cars. The idea of a self-driving car goes back to the 1950s. But the technology always felt like it was decades away."
AI has so far performed largely virtual tasks such as writing articles and drafting letters through large language models and neural networks. Those systems produce information but rarely interact physically with the environment. AI is increasingly moving into the physical world, with 2026 identified as a turning point when AI becomes embodied in real-world systems. The transition began with autonomous vehicles and long-standing ambitions for self-driving cars. Physical AI systems carry greater consequences because failures produce tangible harms. As AI leaves silicon-bound confines, safety, reliability, and regulatory scrutiny become more urgent priorities.
Read at Fast Company
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