Rev Lebaredian

Nvidia's vice president of Omniverse and simulation technology on training AI-powered robots

- BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL

There's lots of discussion about human-centered AI, which augments the human experience rather than replaces it. But aren't humanoid robots a displacement technology?

It's a touchy subject for many. The fact is we've been building a pyramid scheme throughout mankind's existence. Every generation banks on the next generation paying for the people that exist today. And now we're at a potential crisis, where the next generation in many places is actually going to be smaller. We just don't have enough labor. Robots are the only hope we have of producing the services we need to sustain our society. How are we going to do all of that stuff if we don't have advanced manufacturing, advanced transportation, that are using agents that are superhuman in many of those capabilities?

Your work involves creating a digital twin of the real world, called Omniverse, in which AI robots can learn how to act. How does that work?