By Mary Mae Balasanos
From fictional cyborgs we often see in movies, animations and games – how close are we to a world with real life human robots?
Chief executive officer (CEO) of computer manufacturing giant NVIDIA Jensen Huang sees the possibility of humanoid robots in less than five years.
“I think it ought to go to factories first. And the reason for that is because the domain is much more guard-railed, and the use case is much more specific,” said the NVIDIA CEO, as quoted by Reuters.
During an annual developer conference for the company in California, Huang delivered an opening address in front of a crowded hockey stadium.
According to Huang, the manufacturing sector will likely be the first to execute humanoid robots, as it has specific jobs that robots can perform in a regulated setting.
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“When, literally, humanoid robots are wandering around, which is not five years away. This is not a five-years-away problem, this is a few-years-away problem,” Huang said, answering questions from the journalists on how widespread artificial intelligence has become in this day and age.
“The value of it is very, very easy to determine. The going rate for renting a human robot is probably $100,000 and I think it’s pretty good economics,” he added.
Huang demonstrated software tools that he said would make it easier for humanoid robots to move about the environment during the event.
World’s first customizable model
The world’s first open and fully adjustable foundation model for universal humanoid reasoning and skills – NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N1 – is part of a portfolio of technologies the company revealed on Tuesday to accelerate the creation of humanoid robots.
The first in a series of fully customisable models, the GR00T N1 is currently available and will be pre-trained by NVIDIA before being made available to robotics developers globally.
The company’s newsroom noted that the move will speed up the transformation of industries that are facing a labour crisis that is predicted to affect over 50 million workers worldwide.
Humanoid robots in the real world
Over the past decade, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in robotics has accelerated due to the growing interest in humanoid robots and the most recent and expanding technological developments in the field.
The fact that these robots resemble humans also means that they can use the same tools and surroundings as people.
The odds of achieving advancements in these fields surely is an inevitable progress in the near future.
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