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I vividly recall making my first work trip to China. It was about 25 years ago, and I was doing a photo shoot in Dalian, a city I’ d never heard of in the country’ s northeast. At the time, there were around five million people living there, and I really should have been better informed. Cruising into that big, unknown city in a luxurious taxi and arriving at the immaculate business hotel in which I’ d been generously put up, I remember it blowing my mind. It wasn’ t the China I’ d imagined: It was fast-paced, ultra high-tech, wealthy – and that was then.
Fast-forward to 2025, and China is at the forefront of a new tech revolution that already counts some reliable founding members – Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea. Principal among the various technological advancements driving this revolution is artificial intelligence( AI), and not the common-or-garden variety that entertains us on our phones. We’ re talking about physical AI, the embedding of AI capabilities into hardware, enabling machines to perceive, understand, and respond to their environments in a way that mimics human-like interaction and decision-making.
As we discover in this issue, Asia is already embracing these intelligent physical systems – and in many instances, winning the race. In“ Physical AI: Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds”( page 4), we look closely at how smart drones and autonomous humanoid robots are already altering the way we live, work and play. Meanwhile, in“ Asia’ s Electric Vehicle Revolution”( page 32), we consider how EV production and adoption in the region is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, and where the new frontiers lie – flying cars, anyone?
Of course, all this cutting-edge technology deserves an appropriately modern home, and you may not realise that building is already underway in Asia – but it’ s not in China. As the eye-popping pictures in“ NEOM: Saudi Arabia’ s Futuristic Dreamscape”( page 62) reveal, we may one day be heading to the edge of the Arabian Desert to experience the brave new AI-powered world. If I’ m still around when it’ s finished, I’ ll be looking forward to visiting – and having my mind blown all over again.
Ian Bongso-Seldrup