Scroll to move through the machine, or click a part.Above
Every working machine is three decisions
Physical AI is AI with a body: software that leaves the data centre to move crates, feed machines and work a warehouse floor. In June 2024 GXO, a warehouse operator, signed what it called the industry's first contract to pay for a humanoid robot's work: Digit, built by Agility Robotics. This module gives you the frame: a brain that decides, a body that moves, a job that pays. You will follow Digit through it, and by the end you can place any company and tell a demo from a business.
This guide ends at a house. By 2044 machines like the one on this page do much of the paid work, and a salary alone no longer covers a home. So the Karam family's home earns too, with the same three things a warehouse robot has: a brain, a body and a job. Today it is 410 short of covering its month, with two days left. Follow its day as you go.
Real versus hype
Two humanoids, same year, same headlines. The scores are how you tell them apart: is it confirmed, and how far along is it. Hype-risk is what is left when attention runs ahead of substance.
Digit does paid work moving totes at a warehouse in Georgia. A customer signed a multi-year contract, and the robot works on its floor.
Everything shown so far is a demo or a staged event, and volumes and dates have slipped more than once. It may still become real. Today it scores as attention, not substance.
Practise the tell
Three real announcements, in plain words. For each one, decide how far along it is. The tell is always who is paying, and for what.
- Demoshown working, not yet at a customer.
- Piloton trial at a real site.
- Paida customer is paying for the work.
Fluency check
Five companies and what each one does. Place each in the frame. There is one best answer for each.