AI is on track to become a superhuman hardware designer, but design is only the beginning. The interface between bits and atoms is lossy, and turning designs into real hardware gets harder at every level:

1. Sourcing off-the-shelf parts that work together (a 2006 Falcon 1 engine test was delayed by one capacitor, in stock 6,000 miles away)

2. Custom parts, where a master machinist translates CAD into machine instructions

3. Assemblies, where every part can meet its drawing and still not fit

4. Outside vendors (even SpaceX has 591 employees with supply chain titles)

5. Doing all of it at a scale of 1,000,000

"Superhuman AI might be great at pure design, meaning at defining the platonically ideal part for a particular job, but struggle with 'design for manufacturing,' or finding a point design that meets the requirements while remaining easy to build/procure and inexpensive."

Full piece from a16z's Christian Keil on what it takes to turn AI-designed hardware into the real thing: https://www.a16z.news/p/superhuman-hardware-design-is-the