NTT Research announced at its annual Upgrade event that it has started a new AI basic research group, dubbed the Physics of Artificial Intelligence Group.

Physical AI has become a big deal in 2025, with Nvidia leading the charge to create synthetic data to pretest self-driving cars and humanoid robotics so they can get to market faster. NTT Research is launching its Physic of Artificial Intelligence (PAI) Group to get on board.

NTT Research's new independent group is spinning off of its Physic of Intelligence (PHI) Lab to advance our understanding of the "black box" of AI for better trust and safety outcomes. NTT Research, which has an annual $3.6 billion R&D budget, is a division of NTT, Japan's big telecommunications company.

Last year, NTT created its "Physics of Intelligence" vision initially formed in collaboration with the Harvard University Center for Brain Science, key contributions made over the past five years, and ongoing collaboration with academic partners.

PAI Group banner

The new group will be led by Hidenori Tanaka, NTT Research Scientist and expert in physics, neuroscience, and machine learning, in broader pursuit of human/AI collaboration.

The new group will continue to advance an interdisciplinary approach to understanding AI pioneered by the team over the past five years.

Early on, the PHI Lab recognized the importance of understanding the "black box" nature of AI and machine learning to develop novel systems with drastically improved energy efficiency for computation. With AI now advancing at an astonishing rate, issues of trustworthiness and safety have also become critical to industry applications and governance of AI adoption.

In collaboration with leading academic researchers, the Physics of Artificial Intelligence Group aims to address similarities between biological and artificial intelligences, further unravel the complexities of AI mechanisms and build trust that leads to more harmonious fusion of human and AI collaboration.…

Dean Takahashi

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