The future may belong not to a single superintelligence, but to thousands of specialized AI systems coordinating material and administrative processes. AI systems acquire social power when institutions connect them to consequential systems without adequate limits, monitoring, and accountability. Moravec’s paradox helps explain why physical AI presents a different technological challenge from the software-centered systems that dominate public attention. The United States has warehouse robotics, autonomous-vehicle programs, aerospace automation, Nvidia’s robotics platforms and substantial military and industrial AI. Physical AI is therefore not simply a technological ambition.