Fordel StudiosA peek inside Physical Intelligence, the startup building Silicon Valley’s buzziest robot brains
What Happened
If co-founder Lachy Groom has any doubts, he doesn’t show it. He’s working with people who've been working on this problem for decades and who believe the timing is finally right, which is all he needs to know.
Our Take
Okay, timing arguments are the laziest excuse in robotics. 'Timing is finally right' gets said every 5 years. But if Lachy Groom's conviction is real, it's because the foundation models are actually good enough to abstract away the low-level control loop. That's new.
Whether the bet pays off depends on whether their sim-to-real gap is solved (it's not) and whether enterprises actually want to buy their product (TBD). Smart move raising from top-tier people though — at least you've got experienced people who've seen this cycle.
What To Do
Don't invest until they show real-world demos on non-standardized hardware — sim-to-real is the graveyard of robotics.
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