Embodied intelligence should not follow the old path of autonomous driving.
Efficient dissemination often stems from the ultimate respect for the essence of technology. The evolution of embodied intelligence is by no means a dissemination contest. All great narratives that transcend cycles are written in the millions of cycles of technological iteration, rather than in a few words on social platforms. The ultimate mission of the industry is to safeguard the dignity of technology amidst the noise of bubbles and to uphold the original intention of innovation under the wave of capital.
Before getting to the main point, let's have a bit of gossip.
The public relations of embodied intelligence have taken a strange turn from "competing for attention". Recently, media reports claiming "zero success rate of the independent variable open - source model" have emerged intensively on multiple online platforms. Even many ordinary users with hidden usernames like "momo" on social media platforms have joined in to criticize it. The main points of the criticism are as shown in the following picture:
Image source: Screenshot from social media
After the official of the independent variable issued a refutation, the official of the evaluation platform RoboChallenge immediately followed up with refutations across all channels. Unfortunately, the matter didn't end there. A large number of homogeneous manuscripts can be found through keyword searches.
Regarding this matter, a public - relations company in the industry told the Embodied Intelligence Research Society that "this kind of event is a typical organized and premeditated one." The industry insider was rather euphemistic but clearly indicated that this kind of event was not an objective judgment of an individual. "After all, you can see the signs of paid posters in the comment section. This method is quite common."
Image source: Screenshot
It's not hard to understand why the independent variable has become the target of criticism this time. After all, leading in technology often invites doubts, and having a strong model can attract criticism... (XPeng Robotics can deeply relate to this).
This incident is quite similar to our observations after interviews in the first half of the year. At that time, industry insiders pointed out the extensive nature of public - relations behavior.
"Don't you think that embodied intelligence now is very much like autonomous driving back then?"
"The trend in the industry is quite strange. Both investors and enterprises are in a hurry and generally lack patience."
"There is no such thing as backward technology in embodied intelligence. It's normal for different technological routes to be at different development stages. However, the industry is currently hard - pressed to realize this. Everyone is afraid of being outpaced by competitors, leading to the current situation of blind comparison."
As can be seen, although the perspectives and starting points of the above thoughts from industry insiders of embodied intelligence are different, the underlying logic is the same: the atmosphere in the embodied intelligence industry is too impetuous.
In essence, enterprises are driven by the fear of falling behind. Asymmetric comparisons based on one - sided performance parameters have given rise to a large amount of ineffective competition that deviates from the essence of technology. Moreover, in the back - and - forth among enterprises, more and more grand "cyber narratives" and "criticisms" have emerged.
Does it seem a bit like the situation in autonomous driving?
Evidently, compared with the convergence of technological routes, embodied intelligence may be in greater need of the convergence of publicity. After all, this is a pre - programmed feature in the genes of embodied intelligence. Different from small household appliances that require heavy promotion, the rapid - paced nature of this industry forces enterprises to seize every opportunity for collective functional upgrades in the industry; otherwise, they will be forgotten by consumers.
The value curve of embodied intelligence always takes the technological coordinate as the horizontal axis, rather than the dissemination volume as the vertical axis. When enterprises are obsessed with implicit benchmarking against competitors, they are actually eroding the technological depth that requires generational accumulation with dissemination attention. This adventure of using dissemination to replace R & D will ultimately deplete the most precious asset of the industry: "trust".
Extensive publicity can easily lead to misjudgment
After Elon Musk released a video of Optimus running in a human - like posture, which went viral on the Internet, Figure immediately followed suit and showed off its running ability. When countless people compared their gaits, it inadvertently demonstrated how extensive the publicity in the current embodied intelligence field is.
Image source: Screenshot from social media
In simple terms, the main publicity strategy of Optimus and Figure is "following". Under the influence of traffic, enterprises try to prove their strength by binding themselves to each other through comparisons of technological appearances. However, due to the lack of industry standards, although they nominally showcase the same technology, the actual implementation effects vary greatly.
A more intuitive example is that after Unitree Technology achieved the first side - somersault, several humanoid robot manufacturers were busy "doing somersaults" during that period. There were side - somersaults, forward somersaults, backward somersaults, and continuous backward somersaults. There are not many ways left for humanoid robots to do somersaults. After Zhongqing, known for its gait, demonstrated straight - knee walking on the street, many enterprises also started taking their humanoid robots outdoors.
Currently, body manufacturers have fully implemented this approach.
Embodied intelligence itself is not something that can be directly perceived. Due to the lack of group reach and usage experience, it is even more difficult to compare than large - language - model products. Currently, there are still authoritative benchmarks such as Arena for multi - dimensional comparisons of large models, but the embodied intelligence field is far from mature in this regard. This also leads to a vague perception of the capabilities of embodied large models among people.
Let's return to the question of why the same publicity is carried out.
Because predecessors have blazed a trail called "finding the traffic code". If we look back at the "traffic code", we will find that there is no real traffic, only real capabilities. Historical experience shows that all traffic tricks will eventually fade away. The real industry status of Unitree and Zhongqing does not come from promotional videos with tens of millions of views, but from the initiative in hardware self - research and the superiority of core algorithms.
The hard - technology indicators hidden behind the video frame rate are the real passports to transcend the industry cycle. When the marketing fireworks fade away, only the technological foundation can carry the commercial future.
Dissemination does not determine status
True capabilities are not in "verbal battles"
In addition to the homogenization of publicity, to avoid the chaos similar to the situation in autonomous driving, we need to address the less - than - decent means in this "gossip". The last industry to be accused of "negative public relations" was the new - energy vehicle industry, especially in the field of intelligent driving.
Unfortunately, the stage at which "negative public relations" entered the new - energy vehicle industry and the embodied intelligence industry is different. In the former, the industry had reached a certain stage of competition. In other words, it had matured enough to go through market screening. The impact of negative public relations was nothing more than further squeezing the market share in the existing market. However, the embodied intelligence field is just in its infancy. Frankly speaking, it is difficult for start - up companies to climb the technological ladder, let alone spare the energy to attack each other. The embodied intelligence field is an industry where everyone needs to work together. From exploring model routes to open - sourcing data - set collection and coordinating the industrial chain, all require joint efforts, rather than "verbal battles" on social media. In fact, putting aside the topic of "negative public relations" and looking deeper, the root cause behind these publicity methods is "impatience". No one can predict when the capital will turn. The dissemination potential under the prosperous scene can not only be seen by investors but also improve commercial conversion through the dissemination volume, which is beneficial for enterprises to gain a foothold before the bubble bursts.
However, this is not a reasonable and sustainable development logic. A more appropriate dissemination logic for technology - oriented enterprises should be "building on technology - natural spill - over".
DeepSeek is a typical example. In early 2024, the large - model track shifted from the "parameter competition" to the "application competition". On one hand, there was a competition in model scale; on the other hand, companies were competing with each other in terms of their commercialization routes. In the heat of the moment, software upgrades under the name of large models could be seen everywhere in the market.
Looking back with hindsight, the more hyped the large models were at that time, the calmer the situation is now. Large models that failed to fill the commercial gap have gradually been phased out, and what remains in the market are still the large - scale models of well - funded and technology - strong companies.
During that period of excitement, DeepSeek, which remained silent, was hidden behind the spotlight. Its brief period of dormancy did not conceal its brilliance. On the contrary, thanks to algorithm optimization, DeepSeek became the first ray of light after the market calmed down, even changing the gap in the large - model competition.
Evidently, when a company has sufficient technological resources, dissemination will come naturally.
Efficient dissemination often stems from the ultimate respect for the essence of technology. The evolution of embodied intelligence is by no means a short - video contest. All great narratives that transcend cycles are written in the millions of cycles of material fatigue tests and engraved in every late - night code reconstruction, rather than in a few words on social platforms. The ultimate mission of the industry is to safeguard the dignity of technology amidst the noise of bubbles and to uphold the original intention of innovation under the wave of capital.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Embodied Intelligence Research Society". Author: Peng Kunfang. Editor: Lü Xinyi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.