Robotics companies and “physical AI” labs have raised nearly $48 billion this year, according to PitchBook data reported by the Financial Times. A significant share of that money is going toward a resource that cannot simply be scraped from the web: examples of people doing physical work.
Language models can learn from huge stores of existing text and images. Robots need training material that connects perception with movement in varied real-world settings. That means recording people folding clothes, handling tools, moving objects and completing other tasks, then using those demonstrations to teach machines what to do next.
Inside the robot gyms
Companies including Generalist, Physical Intelligence, Neura and Skild are working with outside data providers or building facilities where people operate robotic arms through physical tasks. These “robot gyms” generate demonstrations that models can study and attempt to reproduce.
Other programs collect first-person video. The FT reported that startups are sending recording equipment to factories, offices, homes and vacation rentals around the world, gathering millions of hours of footage from a worker’s point of view. The approach is meant to capture the variety that a robot encounters outside a carefully controlled lab.
