JUST IN:
@nebiusai and @positronic_ro just launched a Physical AI Competition, and the prize pool is $20K+ in GPU and evaluation credits.
On the DROID: Everyday Tasks leaderboard at http://PhAIL.ai, over 1,000 episodes, 100+ common tasks, all on the same Franka arm — the best open models complete only ~70% of tasks on average. The weakest: ~12%.
Robotic manipulation is far from solved. And the gap between models is wide enough for a small team with a good idea to make a real difference.
That’s the whole point of this competition.
→ Open to all teams — register at http://competition.phail.ai
→ First 50 teams to submit in week one get $100 in Nebius GPU credits
→ Models evaluated first in simulation
→ Top 10 advance to testing on a real physical robot arm
→ Competition runs October to December 2026
→ Powered by Nebius GPU infrastructure and Physical AI Workbench
The historical parallel the organisers draw is apt. In the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge, no autonomous vehicle finished the course. A year later, five did. Open competitions with shared rules create turning points.
Robotic manipulation needs its DARPA moment.
🔗 Register here: https://competition.phail.ai/
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