The CEO of the world’s most valuable company said that "the ChatGPT moment for physical AI is almost here.” Translation: get ready for a deluge of AI-powered doohickeys.
What happened: At the Consumer Electronics Showcase, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled Alpamayo, the company’s first platform for autonomous vehicles. Huang claimed it will bring human “reasoning” to self-driving cars (maybe not the best thing based on some of the driving we see around town).
In the next few months, Mercedes plans to release an autonomous car with Nvidia software. And by next year, Nvidia says it will launch its very own robotaxi service.
Zoom out: While Alpamayo stole the show, Huang also unveiled a whole whack of new models and tools meant to power working robots. As TechCrunch’s Rebecca Bellan put it, this is all part of Nvidia’s master plan to “become the default platform for generalist robotics.”
Why it matters: Nvidia’s pivot to physical AI is a sign of the times for the industry. Firms need to prove they can actually make money to justify lofty valuations, which requires moving away from infinitely scaling up costly language models to shipping out profitable products.
These products will increasingly come in the form of AI hardware, which thanks to cheaper sensors and advanced simulations Huang says are now ready for real-world integration.
Our take: Broadly speaking, AI firms need to get more practical this year, because no one really cares about chatbots setting new benchmarks. Certainly, one way to do this is making self-driving cars that don’t freak out or robots that can be used in industrial settings. Functional wearables also look promising. Take Meta, which had to delay global expansion of its Ray-Ban smart glasses due to high demand.—QH