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There's lots of discussion about human-centered AI, which augments the human experience rather than replaces it. But aren't humanoid robots a displacement technology?
It's a touchy subject for many. The fact is we've been building a pyramid scheme throughout mankind's existence. Every generation banks on the next generation paying for the people that exist today. And now we're at a potential crisis, where the next generation in many places is actually going to be smaller. We just don't have enough labor. Robots are the only hope we have of producing the services we need to sustain our society. How are we going to do all of that stuff if we don't have advanced manufacturing, advanced transportation, that are using agents that are superhuman in many of those capabilities?
Your work involves creating a digital twin of the real world, called Omniverse, in which AI robots can learn how to act. How does that work?
It's just like a video game. Omniverse is a kind of video game but different in that they're not fantasy worlds. They're constrained to the laws of physics of the real world as accurately as possible, so we can run a bunch of simulations and test things. The AI, the robot, thinks it's inside the real world and can go try things much faster, because we can just throw more computing at it. In one hour of the real world, it drives millions of hours in the virtual world, and if it makes mistakes, it's not going to harm anyone.
It's maybe like the Matrix in that it's indistinguishable from the real world. That's the key. Because at some point you want to transfer the robot brain into the actual robot to operate in the real world. And if what it's trained on is a cartoony, non-realistic version, then it's not going to operate well.
Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang has been outspoken about the harmful effect of U.S. export controls. Your most advanced chips can't be sold in China, and it feels like new restrictions are unveiled constantly. Are you concerned about the trajectory of global trade?