AI era requires accelerated computing in all applications: Nvidia CEO

Taipei, June 3 (CNA) Generative AI is reshaping industries and with accelerated computing, "we're pushing the boundaries of what's possible and driving the next wave of technological advancement," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said in a speech in Taipei Sunday.

Huang's speech at the National Taiwan University Sports Center gathered thousands of people in the audience, whom he told that AI-capable walking and talking "digital humans" are in the works.

Digital humans, AI PCs, robotics, industrial automation, and Nvidia's next-generation graphic processing units (GPU) platform were some breakthroughs Huang brought forward in Sunday's keynote address, ahead of the opening of the annual computer and related technology exhibition, Computex 2024, on Tuesday.

While interacting AI services with text prompts and speech prompts are possible now, "there are many applications where we would like to interact with a human-like form, which we call digital humans," Huang said.

During the high-profile speech, Huang announced the general availability of Nvidia's generative AI microservices -- technologies from speech recognition, language understanding, realistic facial animation to realistic skin and hair creation.

Those technologies are used to accelerate the development of digital humans, which can be adopted by companies in customer service, gaming, healthcare, and even entertainment, Huang said.

According to Nvidia's press release, digital humans and AI assistants can run on its new AI PCs, which will be based on its "new suite of tools and software development kits that aid developers in optimizing and deploying large generative AI models on Windows PCs."

"Your future laptop and PC will become an AI, constantly helping you and assisting you in the background," Huang said.

On robotic technologies, the American tech company said the world's leaders in robot development -- including BYD Electronics, Siemens, and Teradyne Rotics -- have been adopting Nvidia's robotics platform for the research, development and production of the next-generation AI-enabled autonomous machines and robots.

"Everything is going to be robotic. All of the factories will be robotic. The factories will orchestrate robots, and those robots will be building products that are robotic.

"Robots interacting with robots, building products that are robotic. The era of robotics has arrived ... and we are working to accelerate generative physical AI," the CEO said.

Another climax of his speech was the video showing the world's largest electronic manufacturer, Foxconn, using a "digital twin" powered by the Nvidia Omniverse -- the company's real-time simulation platform -- to train robots in a virtual factory of Foxconn's new factory in Guadalajara, Mexico.

"To design an optimal assembly line, factory engineers need to find the best placement for dozens of robotic arms, each weighing hundreds of pounds," and they also need to situate thousands of sensors to accurately monitor the overall process, according to the press release.

That is why companies like Foxconn are increasingly creating virtual factories for simulation and testing, it added.

"Our digital twin will guide us to new levels of automation and industrial efficiency, saving time, cost and energy," Foxconn Chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) was quoted as saying in the press release.

"And this is happening all over Taiwan," Huang said, pointing out that many other Taiwanese companies, including Delta, Pegatron, and Wistron, are also using the technologies and they will be showcasing their use of the Nvidia's software at Computex.

The Nvidia CEO also fleetingly revealed for the first time, according to the company, the next generation "Rubin platform" that will succeed the upcoming Blackwell platform, the latter of which Huang has just announced in March as the company's new flagship AI superchip that can speed up AI computing.

Huang's speech on Sunday was a "partner keynote" of Computex 2024 and is to be followed by a series of tech business leaders' speeches at the Taipei event from June 4-7.

They started with AMD CEO Lisa Su's opening keynote on Monday, to be followed by speeches by Qalcomm CEO Cristiano Amo on June 3, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai on June 4, Supermicro CEO Charles Liang (梁見後) on June 5, and more.

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