Coco Robotics has appointed a UCLA professor to lead a new research lab focused on physical AI, aiming to advance the development of robots that can interact with the physical world more effectively. This initiative highlights the growing intersection of robotics and artificial intelligence in creating adaptable and intelligent machines.

Figure AI, a little-known startup, is attracting attention with a nearly $40 billion valuation and ambitious plans to deploy over 200,000 robots by 2029. Despite having no revenue last year and only a few dozen robots in production, the company has signed BMW as its first customer and projects significant future earnings.

Robotics expert Ken Goldberg discusses the challenges and advancements in robotics as we approach 2025. He highlights the limitations of current technologies while emphasizing the importance of combining AI with traditional engineering to improve robots' capabilities in tasks that are intuitive for humans.

Tesla's team lead for the Optimus AI project has left the company to join Meta. This departure raises questions about the future of Tesla's robotics initiatives as the company continues to innovate in artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.

Genesis is a versatile physics platform for robotics and embodied AI, featuring a re-engineered universal physics engine, high-speed simulations, and photo-realistic rendering capabilities. It aims to simplify access to physics simulations for research, automate data generation, and support various robotic applications across multiple platforms. The project is open-source, encouraging community contributions and collaboration.

Tesla has unveiled a next-generation Optimus prototype featuring AI assistant Grok, showcasing its early development stage with notable design changes, including new hands and a gold color. Elon Musk emphasizes the robot's potential to significantly impact Tesla's market share and valuation, while also addressing concerns about his voting control amidst an upcoming shareholder vote on his compensation package.

Google announced significant AI updates in March 2025, including enhanced features for the Gemini app, new AI tools for Google Shopping, and advancements in robotics aimed at improving everyday life. Key highlights include the introduction of Gemini 2.5 Pro, personalized AI responses, and innovative solutions for wildfire detection and environmental protection. These developments reflect Google's ongoing commitment to leveraging AI across various sectors to benefit users globally.

Amazon has established a new team within its Lab126 R&D unit focused on developing agentic artificial intelligence, which enables robots to perform complex tasks based on natural language commands. This initiative aims to enhance robotics operations and is part of a broader trend among companies moving beyond basic AI functionalities. The team will create an AI framework that supports the development of versatile robotics assistants.

Humanoid robots are poised to transform the workforce, with companies like Agility Robotics and Tesla planning significant production increases. However, challenges such as demand, battery life, reliability, and safety must be addressed before these robots can scale effectively in real-world applications. While the potential for humanoid robots is acknowledged, the current technological and market realities suggest a cautious path forward.

Amazon has deployed its one millionth robot and introduced a generative AI model named DeepFleet, which enhances travel efficiency of its robotic fleet by 10%. This technological advancement not only accelerates delivery times and reduces costs but also reflects the company's commitment to upskilling its workforce, having trained over 700,000 employees since 2019.

Advances in artificial intelligence are enabling the creation of robots directly from textual descriptions. This innovative approach allows users to generate physical robot designs merely by inputting text, significantly streamlining the design process and making robotics more accessible. The technology could revolutionize various industries by simplifying the way robots are conceptualized and built.

Meta has unveiled its new AI model, V-JEPA 2, designed to enhance understanding of 3D environments and physical object movements, enabling more human-like decision-making. This open-source world model aims to improve technologies like delivery robots and self-driving cars by allowing machines to reason about their surroundings without extensive labeled data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg's focus on AI is underscored by a planned $14 billion investment in artificial intelligence firm Scale AI.

Researchers have developed the Video Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (V-JEPA), an AI model that learns about its environment through videos and exhibits a sense of "surprise" when presented with contradictory information. Unlike traditional pixel-space models, V-JEPA uses higher-level abstractions to focus on essential details, enabling it to understand concepts like object permanence with high accuracy. The model has potential applications in robotics and is being further refined to enhance its capabilities.

Gemini Robotics On-Device is an advanced vision language action model that enables efficient, on-device AI for local robotic devices, showcasing strong dexterity and adaptability for various tasks. It operates independently of data networks, making it suitable for applications requiring low latency and robustness in challenging environments. The accompanying SDK allows developers to easily customize the model for specific uses, enhancing innovation in robotics.

Researchers have developed V-JEPA 2, a neural network trained on one million hours of YouTube videos to enhance robotic understanding of physics through video prediction rather than language processing. This model enables robots to perform actions in new environments with impressive accuracy, demonstrating zero-shot generalization and significant efficiency compared to traditional methods. Despite its successes, the model faces challenges with camera sensitivity and long-term planning.

Nvidia has launched its Jetson AGX Thor robotics chip module, priced at $3,499 for developers, aimed at enabling companies to create advanced robots. The chips, which are 7.5 times faster than previous models and equipped with 128GB of memory, are part of Nvidia's strategy to capitalize on the growing robotics market, although it currently represents only 1% of the company's revenue. Major companies like Amazon and Boston Dynamics are already utilizing these chips for their robotic applications.

General Intuition has secured $134 million in seed funding to develop artificial intelligence agents capable of improving spatial reasoning through the analysis of video game clips. This innovative approach aims to enhance the learning capabilities of AI by leveraging the dynamic environments found in gaming. The funding will support the company’s efforts in refining these agents for various applications, including robotics and autonomous systems.

Hugging Face has unveiled Reachy Mini, a $299 robot aimed at democratizing access to robotics. This open-source device integrates with the Hugging Face Hub, allowing developers to create and share AI applications, potentially reshaping the robotics industry by lowering costs and fostering innovation.