From Security Jamming Our Robot to Global Expansion

Terri vs. the RF Jammer in Malaysia

Nils isback in Hong Kong after the ASEAN AI Summit in Kuala Lumpur, where Terri, our Unitree G1 humanoid intern, went on stage with the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Security had a radio frequency jammer running to block hostile drones. Unfortunately, it also blocked our control link to Terri. Result: he just wouldn’t let go of the phone he was supposed to hand over.

The clip made Malaysian national TV, everyone laughed, and we’ve already been invited back for another event. It also sparked a useful point: for robots to really work in the world, they need:

• Reliable connectivity
• Maps and perception of every venue
• Infrastructure that’s actually built for embodied AI

That’s exactly what we’re building.

Our Role: Make the Physical World Accessible to AI

For anyone new joining from Malaysia, Base, or elsewhere: Auki’s mission is to make the physical world accessible to AI.

We work on collaborative machine perception, mapping, and positioning, so devices like robots, glasses and phones can:

• Understand their environment
• Share maps
• Know where they are indoors (no GPS)

We don’t build foundation models. Instead, we’re a bridge to the physical world for every model. You can use Auki + OpenAI, Auki + Claude, etc. We give them spatial context and embodiment.

Mentra Glasses + Auki: A Turnkey Vision Pipeline

A big focus this week: Mentra’s programmable smart glasses and how they plug into the Auki network.

Glasses provide live visual context, but devs need somewhere to send and process that video. We’re building that pipeline:

1. Mentra glasses send images/video to domain servers (data nodes) on the Auki network.
2. From there, data can go to:
   • Reconstruction nodes (for 3D scenes)
   • Vision nodes (for computer vision tasks)

“You don’t want to do the compute on the camera. You want the compute to happen somewhere else, and Auki is providing turnkey infrastructure for that.”

Our team is working with Mentra both in Hong Kong and in San Francisco to make this pipeline open source and reusable. Expect:

• Grants for builders
• Early projects using Mentra + Auki
• Demo videos of new physical AI copilots

Hybrid Robotics: Shipping “Half a Robot” via Glasses

Most robotics companies chase locomotion and manipulation first (walking and grabbing). We’re doubling down on another strategy: “You can ship half of a robot in a pair of glasses and let the human be the arms and legs.”

We focus on:

• Perception
• Mapping
• Positioning
• Applications

Glasses + the Auki network = AI copilots for physical work, right now, without waiting for humanoids to fully mature.

Our own retail co-pilot, Cactus, is one example. More copilots from community builders are coming soon.

Decentralized “Nervous System,” Not a Data Hoover

A good question from the community: if we’re decentralized and respect data autonomy, how do we compete with giants like OpenAI?

Key points:

• We don’t train foundation models.
• We provide context and coordination, not another LLM.
• Venue data can stay on their hardware, under their control.
• We monetize the protocol that lets machines exchange data and compute, and we “tax” those transactions.

For non-sensitive workloads (like consumer 3D memory capture), reconstruction jobs can be sent to community GPUs. For sensitive commercial work, customers can limit processing to trusted machines or partial views (e.g., one shelf, not a whole store).

Reconstruction Nodes & Community GPUs

We’re preparing to launch reconstruction nodes and already have an early partner: a consumer app for capturing 3D memories (“Instagram for spatial memories”).

Each job:

• Runs on a single consumer GPU
• Finishes in under ~15 minutes
• Produces public content

We plan to:

• Route these jobs through community reconstruction nodes
• Subsidize early workloads from the foundation so operators can earn meaningful tokens
• Offer bounties to extend node functionality via open source contributions

Short, self-contained jobs make this a great first fit for community GPUs.

US Trip, Basecamp & San Francisco Office

Travel change: instead of Europe, I’m heading to the US.

• Basecamp (Base ecosystem meetup):
  I was personally invited and will use it to make sure the Base community knows we’re the robotics / physical AI play on Base.
• September 9 – LA retail event:
  I’ll be in Los Angeles to pitch Costco and other major retailers on how our spatial AI can transform their physical operations.
• New SF office with Mentra:
  We’re opening a shared space in Hayes Valley, San Francisco, with Mentra. Together we’ll have a joint showroom where people can try AI copilots for physical work in person.

Our main office remains in Hong Kong; SF becomes our US hub.

Denmark Enterprise Deal & a Global Hotel Chain

Commercially:

• Our pilot with a Nordic retailer (~2,000 stores total) is going well.
• We’re close to signing a deal for 100–120 stores across two of their brands, where our value prop and margins are clearest.
• If results are strong, we’ll expand to their largest brand afterward.

We also have an upcoming meeting with a C-level exec at one of the world’s biggest hotel chains to explore how physical AI and copilots can help them beyond the retail context.

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Watch the whole update on X.

About Auki

Auki is making the physical world accessible to AI by building the real world web: a way for robots and digital devices like smart glasses and phones to browse, navigate, and search physical locations.

70% of the world economy is still tied to physical locations and labor, so making the physical world accessible to AI represents a 3X increase in the TAM of AI in general. Auki's goal is to become the decentralized nervous system of AI in the physical world, providing collaborative spatial reasoning for the next 100bn devices on Earth and beyond.

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