--- title: "Physical AI - humanoids — AI hype score and trend · Above the Fog" canonical_url: https://abovethefog.app/topics/physical_ai as_of: 2026-09-27 updated: 2026-09-28T22:02:40Z --- # Physical AI - humanoids (💡 Concepts) [Home](https://abovethefog.app/index.md) › [Topics](https://abovethefog.app/topics.md) › Physical AI - humanoids Physical AI - humanoids is 💤 Quiet on Above the Fog’s AI hype radar: a hype score of 22 out of 100 on Sep 27, 2026, 20 points higher than 7 days before. Its attention is within the normal range across the monitored sources. Its last hype episode in the 30-day window ran from Sep 15 to Sep 15 (peak 29 on Sep 15). Physical AI: humanoid robots and models that act in the real world (Figure, Tesla Optimus, Agility Digit). First seen on Reddit · Sep 15 — the first monitored source to go above normal for it in the last 14 days. Why this stage: within the normal range across monitored sources. - **Stage:** 💤 Quiet — within the normal range across the monitored sources - **Hype score:** 22.5 / 100 · +2.9 in 1 day · +20.1 in 7 days - **In hype since:** not in hype now - **Peak, 30 days:** 29 on Sep 15, 2026 - **Category:** 💡 Concepts - **Sources above normal:** 2 of 25 scoring it (2 independent families) - **Stories in 7 days:** 152 - **Share of voice:** 0.4% of the radar’s attention in 7 days ## Where the attention comes from “Normal” is the median of the source’s previous 14 normal days for this topic. A source is above normal when its value is at least 30% over that level and stands out from its usual day-to-day variation (z ≥ 2); the share is the part of the hype score that source explains. “× normal” is left blank when the normal level is 0. | Source | Metric | Latest | Normal | × normal | Above normal | Share of score | |---|---|---:|---:|---:|---|---:| | Cerebral Valley (AI events) | events | 21 (Sep 26) | 5 | 3.7× | yes | 60% | | HN: front-page time (ClickHouse) | frontpage hours | 4.1 | 0 | — | yes | 38% | | Luma (SF AI events) | events | 21 (Sep 26) | 19 | 1.1× | no | 1.7% | | Reddit | posts | 4 | 3 | 1.2× | no | 0% | | Bluesky | trending | 0 (Sep 26) | 0 | — | no | 0% | | Developer forums (Cursor, OpenAI, Hugging Face) | items | 0 | 0 | — | no | 0% | | GitHub Trending | trending | 0 (Sep 26) | 0 | — | no | 0% | | Google Trends (Trending now) | trending | 0 (Sep 26) | 0 | — | no | 0% | ## Stories behind it 1. [GPT-6 Astra can now control a humanoid robot in a room it has never seen, remember where objects are, clean up across the room, and fetch things later from vague human requests using a G1 Unitree humanoid robot](https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1wqwcqe/) — Reddit (r/singularity) · Sep 26 · score 1,675 · 282 comments 2. [Degrees of Freedom: Robotics Builders Night @ Mission Robotics](https://luma.com/h2ron9ra) — Luma (SF AI events) (Rally SF) · score 83 3. [Tesla’s optimus hits snags in hands, suppliers as scale-up begins](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49846995) — HN: front-page time (ClickHouse) (electrek.co) · Sep 25 · score 11 · 26 comments 4. [HomeBody: A humanoid that explores, remembers, and acts on its own](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49859299) — Hacker News (tml.stanford.edu) · Sep 26 · score 39 · 4 comments 5. [LWiAI Podcast #257 - GPT 6 Astra, AI Extinction, Security Incidents](https://lastweekin.ai/p/lwiai-podcast-257-gpt-6-astra-ai) — AI newsletters (RSS) (Last Week in AI) · Sep 24 · score 26 · 0 comments 6. [Physical AI chip startup SiMa.ai raised a $150M Series C led by Fidelity and Amplify at a $1.45B valuation, aiming to compete with Nvidia's CUDA-based hardware](https://www.techmeme.com/260928/p22#a260928p22) — Techmeme (SiliconANGLE) · Sep 28 · score 9 · 0 comments 7. [Factory arms compensating for misaligned parts instead of buying another fixture. Ekumen’s figure is 2–5ms for a collision-free path. Does that hold up once Nav2 and the safety scanner are in the loo…](https://techhub.social/@gadgetry/117320051022737454) — Mastodon (fediverse) (techhub.social) · Sep 23 · score 4 · 0 comments 8. [Stargate \(2026\) by MilaSoft for VIC-20. A Williams arcade classic rebuilt from scratch for the VIC-20 in 100% machine language. Smooth scrolling, smart enemies, hyperspace and a frantic fight to save…](https://mastodon.social/@brewotaku/117330680009497021) — Mastodon (fediverse) (mastodon.social) · Sep 25 · score 4 · 0 comments 9. [Press X to Doubt Eval: I told 14 AI models it's September 2026 and showed them 20 things that actually happened this year without websearch. On average they gave reality a 36% chance.](https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1wqne7g/) — Reddit (r/singularity) · Sep 26 · score 121 · 46 comments 10. [SF Techweek 2026 Afterparty-Meet Founders & Investors](https://luma.com/techweekSF) — Luma (SF AI events) (FounderGro Events) · score 59 11. [YC S26 has a sovereign Starlink, Crowdstrike for agents, and an AI defense contractor. Am I crazy or is this batch different? \(i will not promote\)](https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1wo4eng/) — Reddit (r/startups) · Sep 23 · score 17 · 29 comments 12. [“Around 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide last year for industrial and professional service use, figures compiled by the International ​Federation of Robotics showed.” “To qualify ​as #humano…](https://ioc.exchange/@peterrenshaw/117312540660168581) — Mastodon (fediverse) (ioc.exchange) · Sep 22 · score 1 · 1 comment ## Themes What its stories of the last 7 days are about: the 107 of them the Jev model kept as about the scene, by theme (a story can carry several themes): - Other AI — 32% of its stories - [Models](https://abovethefog.app/themes/models.md) — 24% of its stories - [Companies & business](https://abovethefog.app/themes/companies_business.md) — 22% of its stories - [Agents](https://abovethefog.app/themes/agents.md) — 14% of its stories - [Policy & macro](https://abovethefog.app/themes/policy_macro.md) — 14% of its stories - [Usage & adoption](https://abovethefog.app/themes/usage_adoption.md) — 9.3% of its stories ## Related topics - **Related to:** [Waymo - robotaxis](https://abovethefog.app/topics/waymo.md), [Nvidia](https://abovethefog.app/topics/nvidia.md), [World models](https://abovethefog.app/topics/world_models.md) - **Mentioned with:** [AGI - superintelligence](https://abovethefog.app/topics/agi.md) (12 stories), [Google DeepMind](https://abovethefog.app/topics/google_deepmind.md) (9 stories), [SF AI scene](https://abovethefog.app/topics/sf_ai_scene.md) (4 stories), [AI in math](https://abovethefog.app/topics/ai_math.md) (3 stories) ## Hype score, last 30 days | Day | Hype score | Stage | |---|---:|---| | Sep 27, 2026 | 22.5 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 26, 2026 | 19.6 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 25, 2026 | 3.5 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 24, 2026 | 0.1 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 23, 2026 | 0.6 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 22, 2026 | 4.3 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 21, 2026 | 23.4 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 20, 2026 | 2.4 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 19, 2026 | 0 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 18, 2026 | 14.9 | 🧊 Cooling | | Sep 17, 2026 | 7.2 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 16, 2026 | 1.9 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 15, 2026 | 29 | 🚀 Rising | | Sep 14, 2026 | 0.8 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 13, 2026 | 0 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 12, 2026 | 11.1 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 11, 2026 | 9.6 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 10, 2026 | 3.2 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 9, 2026 | 19 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 8, 2026 | 5.6 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 7, 2026 | 15.5 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 6, 2026 | 0 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 5, 2026 | 0 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 4, 2026 | 11.6 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 3, 2026 | 4.8 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 2, 2026 | 15.3 | 💤 Quiet | | Sep 1, 2026 | 10 | 💤 Quiet | | Aug 31, 2026 | 2 | 💤 Quiet | | Aug 30, 2026 | 0 | 💤 Quiet | | Aug 29, 2026 | 8.9 | 💤 Quiet | [Open Physical AI - humanoids in the interactive map →](https://abovethefog.app/#topic=physical_ai) --- Updated Sep 28, 2026, 22:02 UTC · Data: Above the Fog hype radar [HTML page](https://abovethefog.app/topics/physical_ai) · [llms.txt](https://abovethefog.app/llms.txt) · [About & methodology](https://abovethefog.app/about.md) · [Privacy](https://abovethefog.app/about.md#privacy)