My New Book: Embodied AI Safety
Reimagining safety engineering for artificial intelligence in physical systems
Philip Koopman, Embodied AI Safety: Reimagining safety engineering for artificial intelligence in physical systems, 452 pages in 6”x9” format, published August 30, 2025.
(Purchase links at end of post.)
Summary:
Embodied AI (eAI) uses artificial intelligence based on machine learning to interact with the physical world. We are already seeing eAI deployed in the real world in robotaxis, smart medical devices, household robots, and other applications. However, everyone is struggling with the safety of these devices: how to design for safety, how to evaluate safety, and how to think about whether any particular eAI system is acceptably safe.
This book provides a foundation for thinking about the topic of eAI safety that is accessible to a non-specialist technical audience. Robotaxi safety is used as a concrete example. Early chapters provide an introduction to safety engineering, cybersecurity engineering, machine learning technology, and human/computer interaction. Later chapters cover eAI safety challenges in the wild, the complexities of establishing what risks might be acceptable, and open challenges in eAI safety. A proposal for reimagining safety engineering responds to the huge disruption that eAI technology creates when applying traditional computer-based system safety approaches. In the end, what we need are ways to build justifiable trust in eAI safety.
Chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Safety engineering concepts
3. Cybersecurity engineering concepts
4. Machine learning concepts
5. The role of humans in eAI safety
6. eAI safety issues in the wild
7. Acceptable risk
8. Reimagining safety engineering
9. Open challenges for building safe eAI
10. Justifiable trust for safety-critical eAI
11. Conclusions
Support page with clickable footnotes: https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/EmbodiedAI/
Click here for an Amazon-hosted preview, including table of contents, preface, and part of chapter 1 (Works on browsers only; did not work on my mobile phone.)
Book information:
ISBN: 9798292384410 Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9798292384618 Hardcover
E-Book: coming later in 2025 for multiple platforms.
Ordering links: The Amazon print-on-demand system runs printing operations in these countries, with generally quick delivery times, priced in local currency. For other countries select on whichever country has the lowest shipping charges to your location. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
India (IN): Kindle (availability TBD depending on Amazon release processes)
Note: Amazon does not offer print-on-demand in India, Brazil, Mexico, so e-book will be the only purchase option. E-book is expected to be available in those countries plus most print edition countries by the end of 2025.
Thank you Prof. Koopman for sharing decades of experience. I read the book from cover to cover and found it very insightful (note: despite being a safety expert... We always learn!).
I enjoyed reading your previous books so will definitely get this as soon as the e-book becomes available!