Nvidia unveils generative AI advancements that go beyond chips
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Developers can use Apple Vision Pro to teleoperate robots for capturing demonstration data. Photo credit: Nvidia
Nvidia unveiled several new real-world examples of generative AI at work on Monday afternoon during SIGGRAPH, a major computer graphics technologies conference.
Driving the news: CEO Jensen Huang in Denver described the role that Nvidia plays in driving AI development beyond its chips and hardware — including through its Nvidia Inference Microservices (NIM) platform.
- Huang explained that Nvidia has always been a software-first company focused on a more advanced type of computing.
Zoom in: The announcements involved improvements in the way Nvidia blends generative AI and 3D and virtual world content generation.
- The company is now making AI services and models available to help robot manufacturers accelerate humanoid robot development.
- Nvidia's services can now help researchers teach robots how to perform certain tasks with the help of a device like the Apple Vision Pro worn by a human trainer.
- Nvidia has also been working with Getty Images and Shutterstock to ensure that AI-generated images more accurately match text prompts.
- Announcements also included advancements to help engineers with industrial design, real-world visualization, advertising tools and more.
Case in point: In a video demo featuring a child's voice, 3D worlds and eventual lifelike photos were generated based on text prompts like "Build me a tree in an empty field. Build me hundreds of them in all directions."
- Coca-Cola and marketing giant WPP are among the earliest adopters of Nvidia-powered generative AI art tools.
Zoom out: Generative AI products aren't just outputs for the company, but also inputs.
- "All of our software engineers have AIs that help them debug software. We have AIs that help our chip designers design chips," said Huang.
The intrigue: When asked by Wired's Lauren Goode where the line should be drawn between helping people and protecting jobs, Huang sidestepped.
- Ultimately, even his own job will change, he said: "I'm going to be prompting a whole bunch of AIs."
- And he won't be alone: "Everybody will have an AI that is an assistant ... Every single company, every single job within the company will have AIs that are assistants to them."
What we're watching: Nvidia's advanced AI chips have driven the company's growth and market success, and now it's broadening its software efforts.
- Its impact on the markets has been outsized this year — driving about 35% of the S&P 500's market cap gains as of June.
Go deeper... New AI hype alert: Cost-free knowledge
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
