TechCrunch Disrupt 2026’s Real World AI Stage features robots, automated factories, and extinct animals
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is introducing a new 'Real World AI' stage to explore the intersection of digital AI and physical hardware. The event will feature discussions on autonomous systems, defense technology, and controversial applications like de-extinction.
Why it matters
It highlights the industry's shift from purely software-based AI to physical, autonomous systems that carry higher real-world safety and ethical stakes.
At our past TechCrunch Disrupt events, AI has taken center stage, both throughout our programming and in a stage of its own. This year, the technology, implications, and players are so rapidly developing and widespread that we’re expanding the single AI stage into two!
The AI Stage will continue as you’d expect, with a rundown of sessions and speakers available for review right here. But the Real World AI Stage is brand-new for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 .
On this stage, we’ll be focusing on that intersection between the digital and physical, and all the ways we’ll continue to see a blending of the two, as autonomous hardware goes beyond self-driving cars and enters public spaces, battlefields, our homes, and even potentially helps extinct species reenter Earth.
It’s a packed lineup featuring speakers from Shield AI, Colossal Biosciences, FieldAI, Foxglove, and more still to come.
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