Kinetic Risk: Securing and Governing Physical AI in the Wild

Padma Apparao, Architecting AI solutions, Govt Agencies, speaks at [un]prompted 2026 on: Kinetic Risk: Securing and Governing Physical AI in the Wild. When AI leaves the screen and enters the physical world, failure shifts from misinformation to kin...

Padma Apparao, Architecting AI solutions, Govt Agencies, speaks at [un]prompted 2026 on: Kinetic Risk: Securing and Governing Physical AI in the Wild.

When AI leaves the screen and enters the physical world, failure shifts from misinformation to kinetic damage. Physical AI is fundamentally different from traditional AI: while performance and throughput dominate system design, the potential for physical harm means security, risk, and governance must be built in from the start. This talk explains why Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models powering robotics and autonomous machines require system-level thinking beyond model accuracy. We examine VLA-specific security risks such as sensor spoofing and embodied instruction manipulation that can lead to unsafe physical actions. The talk also explores why existing governance frameworks like the EU AI Act and NIST AI RMF fall short for adaptive, non-deterministic AI systems operating in dynamic, real-world environments. Finally, we address the organizational friction between engineering, safety, and risk teams as Physical AI scales into production. Real-world examples are used throughout to illustrate performance, security, governance, and organizational challenges.
The audience will leave with practical reference architecture ideas, recommendations for evolving governance frameworks, and actionable guidance for securing physical AI implementations, all framed around a “safety-first” mindset where innovation leads even without “Ctrl-Z”.