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This audio production is intended to bring new technologies that impact our lives, like digital assets, central bank digital currencies and artificial intelligence in an easy to understand way to a larger audience.

In this episode, we discuss how the year 2026 marks a pivotal inflection point for the robotics industry, transitioning from a period of relative stagnation to a "Physical AI" revolution. Propelled by advances in specialized foundational models and high-performance computing, AI is moving from digital screens into the physical economy. Key highlights include:

• Market Growth: Cumulative installed capacity of industrial robots is projected to reach 5.5 million units by 2026. The humanoid robotics market for industrial use is estimated to be worth between US210million and US270 million in 2026, with long-term projections suggesting a US$5 trillion industry by 2050.

• Technological Shift: The emergence of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and "Embodied AI" allows robots to move beyond pre-programmed commands to context-aware decision-making and autonomous task execution.

• Geopolitical Competition: China has placed a strategic national bet on Embodied AI to counteract an aging population and sluggish growth, while U.S. efforts remain largely driven by the private sector (e.g., Tesla, Figure AI, and Boston Dynamics).

• Critical Bottlenecks: Despite the hype, the industry faces severe constraints regarding battery density (averaging 1–4 hours of runtime), mechanical reliability, and a lack of standardized safety regulations (ISO).

• Cybersecurity Risks: Humanoid robots are increasingly vulnerable to hijacking and data leaks; recent flaws in Bluetooth protocols and hard-coded encryption keys highlight an urgent need for rigorous security standards.

For more on AI, check out Leon's books on the subject. They can then be found on Amazon next to his other publications: http://tiny.cc/cbdc

More information is available on www.digitalekho.com