Keep pulling the thread on Jim Fan.
NVIDIA is building a full-stack computing platform for humanoid and intelligent robots, encompassing the Jetson Thor chip family, the Project GROOT foundation model, and simulation utilities.
The number of intelligent robots in the world could equal the number of iPhones within 10 or more years.
NVIDIA's Project GROOT is a major initiative focused on building foundation models specifically for humanoid robotics.
NVIDIA's primary competitive advantages in robotics are its extensive compute resources and its long-standing expertise in physics simulation and real-time GPU acceleration.
NVIDIA's robotics data strategy combines three sources: internet-scale text and video, synthetic data from its simulation tools, and real-world data collected via robot teleoperation.
NVIDIA's GPU-accelerated simulators can collect robotics data at a throughput up to 10,000 times faster than real-time.
A research breakthrough in robot foundation models, analogous to the "GPT-3 moment" for language models, is expected to occur within the next 2 to 3 years.
The anticipated "GPT-3 moment" for robotics will be a breakthrough in "System 1" capabilities, enabling a model to generalize low-level motor control for abstract commands like "open" across various objects and contexts.
NVIDIA's research focuses on humanoid robots because existing human-centric infrastructure, equipment, and tools are already optimized for the human form factor.
Humanoid robots powered by foundation models like Project GROOT are expected to be capable of performing daily household chores, elderly care, and tasks in commercial settings like restaurants and factories within the next decade.
NVIDIA's Project GROOT is pursuing a generalist-first strategy for robotics, believing that a general foundation model that can be specialized later will ultimately be superior to building narrow, task-specific models, despite the longer development time.
The NVIDIA Jetson Thor chip was announced in conjunction with Project GROOT to provide a full-stack, unified solution for robotics customers.