The San Francisco Bay Space is a nexus of AI and robotics. Supply: Adobe Inventory
The San Francisco Bay Space is the nexus of the bogus intelligence revolution within the U.S., anchored by San Francisco, with the renaissance of robotics funding and innovation in Silicon Valley. AI is merging with and embodied by robotics right here.
As an example, Waymo’s driverless automobiles are a typical sight in San Francisco. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang mentioned the way forward for AI is bodily AI, embodied by robotics together with self-driving automobiles.
Just lately, The New York Occasions urged the opportunity of a robotic “winter,” particularly for humanoid robots.
Nevertheless, within the Dec. 10 Public Relation Society of America (PRSA) annual Silicon Valley Media Predicts of the 2025 know-how trade and market, Don Clark of the Occasions talked about that newspaper has by no means discovered a know-how it may well’t discover the darkish facet of. He famous that The New York Occasions‘ first point out of synthetic intelligence, courting again to round 1953, warned that robots may sometime pose a risk to humanity.
Nicely, we’re alive and properly—busily growing humanoid robots and embedding superior AI chips into flying drones, self-driving autos, and different autonomous methods.
Media analysts affirm the arrival of the age AI
The PRSA occasion featured a distinguished panel, together with:
- Dion Lim of ABC7 Bay Space
- Jon Swartz, beforehand with Market Watch and USA Immediately and now with Techstrong.ai
- Rosalie Chan of Enterprise Insider, whose work earlier appeared in TIME, The Chicago Report, and many others.
- Don Clark of New York Occasions, beforehand with The Wall Road Journal.
Lim mentioned autonomous autos, highlighting the success of Waymo, its partnership with Uber, and its enlargement in San Francisco and past to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, and now Tokyo. Though Worldwide Federation of Robotics (IFR) doesn’t categorize autonomous autos as robotics; they’re no much less an embodiment of AI than humanoid developer Determine AI.
The panel additionally delved into AI brokers and their functions. Swartz has written extensively about AI. He talked about AI “tremendous brokers,” the place one agent experiences to a different. Swartz noticed that advances in AI brokers is probably not as speedy as desired, however their trajectory stays promising.
From left: moderator Becca Chambers, Dion Lim of ABC7 Bay Space, Jon Swartz of Techstrong.ai, New York Occasions contributor Don Clark, and Rosalie Chan of Enterprise Insider. Credit score: Paul Sakuma Pictures
Market and humanoid prospects are nonetheless vibrant
Chan commented on the quiet IPO market of the previous 12 months. She predicted a rebound in 2026. Whereas others have speculated about 2025 as a turning level, the AI and robotics sectors stay vibrant regardless of a considerably subdued public providing market in 2025.
Following the Media Predict occasion was the Humanoid Summit on the Laptop Historical past Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Aaron Prather, who spoke on the occasion, later posted in regards to the notion of “intentional stance” for AI robotics.
Prather, who’s
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Human capital clusters in Silicon Valley and elsewhere
This results in the significance of human capital, important to the speedy progress of cell robots, drones, and autonomous autos. Determine AI CEO Brett Adcock, who raised $675 million for the AI robotics startup, lately posted that he’s “hiring like loopy.”
Monetary capital chases after human capital. The Bay Space’s prime universities gas San Francisco and Silicon Valley’s progress by coaching engineers and technicians who sort out challenges reminiscent of bipedal dynamic, management, and deep studying.
Robotics professionals from the San Francisco Bay Space, in addition to Japan, India, and Switzerland, now embody skilled designers from main firms, professors, and trade executives. They’re now engaged on coaching and schooling, not solely from content material in a information graph ontology sense, but additionally the epistemology in pedagogy sense.
Along with idea and understanding, this various group is making actual progress. For instance, they’re growing {hardware} platforms in order that college students can be taught the fundamentals of upper-body versus lower-body dynamics. Different necessary subjects embody guide and robotic dexterity, plus levels of freedom of the neck and hip, all in opposition to the fast-changing backdrop of AI.
The AI trade continues to develop
NVIDIA final week introduced a big discount within the value of its Orin Nano AI chipset. It halved the associated fee whereas rising efficiency 1.7x to 67 TOPS (trillion operations per second). In response to Huang, this chipset can assist each general-purpose AI and agentic AI, enabling edge intelligence.
Agentic AI humanoid robots—reasoning cell robots with anthropomorphic kinds—are edging nearer to actuality. These robots may sometime retrieve all recognized information, purpose over very long time horizons, and bodily reply with agility. Might this be Information of Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology? No surprise Starfleet’s headquarters are in San Francisco.
Concerning the creator
Albert Hu, Ph.D., is president and director of schooling at SuperTech FT, a San Francisco-based nonprofit devoted to offering STEM (science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic), robotics, and AI schooling. The corporate mentioned it delivers “agile upskilling for an agile workforce.”
Particular because of public relations advisor Michelle Mclntyre for her LinkedIn submit, which was useful in recording the details of the Media Predict occasion.
