AI Robotics Shifts Value from Hardware Bodies to Intelligent Brains

Summary

AI is moving into physical environments as robotics models become more reusable and hardware becomes cheaper. Yunzheng Li argues that long-term value will shift from robot bodies to intelligent models, real-world data, middleware, tools, and developer ecosystems. He also describes Agent-native development, where AI agents configure environments and run robotics demos. China’s manufacturing strengths and the United States’ model and software ecosystems may provide complementary foundations for global robotics platforms.