A big winner in the rush toward generative artificial intelligence (AI), NVIDIA now wants to get involved in the booming humanoid sector. The company is preparing to market Jetson Thor, a “ platform for robots “.
An operating system for humanoids
Thor complements NVIDIA’s Jetson series of advanced embedded platforms designed for AI and machine learning applications. The company presented it with great fanfare during its conference organized in March, when a slew of humanoids joined Jensen Huang, its CEO, on stage.
NVIDIA ensures that its technology will be commercialized in the first half of 2025, in order to equip other companies’ robots. Jetson Thor can thus be compared to an operating system specifically designed to power humanoids.
The platform stands out for its ability to run multi-modal AI modelsthat is to say capable of processing and understanding information coming from texts, images, audio and even sensory data such as touch and movements. Also, Jetson Thor should allow robots to understand natural language and interact more intuitively with their environment, while optimizing their energy consumption thanks to a sophisticated modular architecture.
And the company is thinking big. It targets a fragmented market of “ hundreds of thousands » from manufacturersexplained Deepu Talla, NVIDIA vice president of robotics and edge computing, during a press conference in Tokyo.
A sector that is evolving thanks to generative AI
NVIDIA’s efforts reflect the evolution of the humanoid sector, which has received a real boost thanks to the boom in generative artificial intelligence (AI). Integrating learning models into robots gives them the ability to acquire knowledge and easily adapt to a wide range of tasks. This is a considerable step forward in the sector.
A trend which is confirmed by the ever-increasing investments of generative AI players in young companies specializing in robotics. In March, OpenAI injected funds into Figure AI, a startup whose humanoid is already impressive. It integrates a business model to facilitate communication with humans.
One of the most advanced humanoid robots to date, Tesla’s Optimus, could also be equipped with generative AI in the future, notably the Grok model from xAI, Elon Musk’s startup founded in 2023.
However, we will need to be patient before we see significant progress in this complex area. Deepu Talla believes that it is unlikely that quality humanoid robots will be deployed on a large scale in 2025.
- NVIDIA will commercialize its Jetson Thor platform in the first half of 2025.
- This technology aims to equip humanoid robots from other manufacturers.
- The robotics sector is taking a major step forward thanks to the rise of generative AI.
