This Week’s Newsletter: Gemini 4 Meets Apollo, PI Opens Its API and Robots Get to Work

Our latest Humanoids Daily newsletter is out, led by Google's Gemini 4 Argon demonstration with Apollo and Physical Intelligence's new API beta for robot model training and inference.

This week's edition connects advances in robot intelligence with the practical work of building, testing and deploying the machines—and the expectations surrounding their businesses.

Read the October 20 edition, or subscribe to the free weekly briefing.

Key Takeaways

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• Gemini 4 Argon helps Apollo learn a cornhole throw, while PI opens a managed route to training and running robot models.
• Atlas build times, Figure's million-step treadmill test and KAIST's heavy lifting put hardware progress in focus.
• Agility's busy week, Unitree's valuation warning and our Faraday Future Q&A round out the business coverage.

Inside this edition

From watching a throw to making one. Google's Apollo demonstration connects human video, simulation and feedback from physical attempts. We explain the workflow behind the reported seven-shot streak and distinguish the demonstration from broader performance claims.

A new route to robot AI. Physical Intelligence's API beta lets teams upload demonstrations, fine-tune models and use hosted inference. We look at what it offers developers and the work still required on real hardware.

The engineering behind useful robots. Boston Dynamics discusses cutting Atlas build times, Figure puts a humanoid through 1.2 million treadmill steps, and KAIST combines movement and manipulation to handle heavy objects. Agility's updates span charging, design compromises, a factory pilot and its planned listing.

The edition also covers Schaeffler's robot-component factory, Swedish startup 120ft, Tesla's outlook, Unitree's commercialization warning, our answers from Faraday Future, RoboParty's open release and a furry character robot called Hugo.

Get the next edition

One email a week brings together our reporting, demonstrations and follow-ups, with links to the full stories when you want more detail.

Read this week's newsletter and subscribe for the next edition—it's free.