Simulation for physical AI: the robot is well modelled, the people around it less so
Physical AI now runs on open physics engines, world foundation models and synthetic demonstrations measured in hundreds of thousands. The newest benchmarks ask whether simulated scores predict real ones, and the part of the scene least checked against reality is the people.
Crowds on days nobody opened
Living Worlds' crowd against real pedestrians in Jülich experiments, a shopping centre in Osaka and six recorded street scenes, each scored once on recordings nobody had opened: met in the shopping centre, in four fresh Jülich experiments and with a learned walking layer; not met in the first Jülich set and in three of six street scenes.
Agents that remember, and people around a working machine
An agent that remembers what a person said predicted their answers four years later better than a persona, in every panel and on every question; an agent given only a life record did no better than a persona. And Living Worlds' crowd predicted how close real people came to a real robot in 7 of 8 recordings nobody had opened.