Abstract: By interacting with environment, embodied artificial intelligence autonomous underwater vehicles (EAI-AUVs) can autonomously perform perception, decision, and action, and can achieve intelligent growth through feedback. The intelligence of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is constantly improving, but the main operation mode is still preset program control combined with remote control. To break through the limitations of this mode, developing EAI-AUVs by integrating EAI technology with AUVs has become an important direction. In this paper, the concept of EAI, the basic conditions of developing EAI for AUVs, and the realization methods of EAI-AUV are analyzed. From the perspective of“perception-decisions-action”loop, the key technologies of EAI-AUVs are sorted out, and the typical military and civilian application scenarios as well as the challenges are analyzed. In response to the rapid development of EAI technology, it is necessary to accelerate the research and application of EAI-AUVs, and improve the intelligence level and operational capability.