As AI dominates the headlines some massive ones in the present day centered on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who spoke for almost three hours on the chip maker’s packed world AI builders convention, laying out the huge transition in computing underway and saying a raft of latest initiatives.
One is a collaboration with Google DeepMind and Disney Research to develop an open-source physics engine referred to as Newton that lets robots discover ways to deal with advanced duties with higher precision.
Disney Research shall be one of many first to make use of Newton to advance its robotic character platform that powers next-generation leisure robots, such because the expressive Star Wars-inspired BDX droids that joined Huang on stage throughout his GTC keynote.
“The BDX droids are just the beginning. We’re committed to bringing more characters to life in ways the world hasn’t seen before, and this collaboration with Disney Research, NVIDIA and Google DeepMind is a key part of that vision,” mentioned Kyle Laughlin, SVP at Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, within the formal announcement. “This collaboration will allow us to create a new generation of robotic characters that are more expressive and engaging than ever before — and connect with our guests in ways that only Disney can.” Droids additionally wandered about just lately at SXSW in a presentation by Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman referred to as The Future of World Building At Disney.
Huang centered within the early a part of his remarks on the huge transformation underway in computing. Commanding the stage in a leather-based biker jacket, he referred to as it a seismic shift from “retrieval” – or creating content material after which “fetching what we need.”
“Now, AI understands the content, what we are asking, and the meaning of our requests … and generates an answer for us rather than retrieving data, fundamentally changing how computing is done,” he mentioned at his anticipated keynote tackle. GTC stands for GPU Technology Conference, a worldwide synthetic intelligence confab for builders, engineers, researchers, inventors and IT professionals centered on AI, pc graphics, knowledge science, machine studying and autonomous machines. GPU is brief for Graphics Processing Technology. There had been 1000’s on the SAP Center (previously the San Jose Arena) and lots of extra watching on YouTube.
Huang talked of “agentic AI” – or AI that “has agency, can understand, can reason … and it can plan and take action. It can use tools.”
To meet anticipated demand from corporations and customers, AI wants extra knowledge facilities, perhaps a trillion dollars-worth. “General purpose computing has run its course,” he mentioned, “and the world is going through a platform shift from hand-coded software running on a general-purpose computer, to AI. It’s at its tipping point.”
He’s describing a brand new manner of constructing infrastructure, AI factories with one job solely, “generating the tokens that we reconstitute as music, into words, into videos, into research.”
Nvidia’s web site explains that tokens are tiny models of information that come from breaking down greater chunks of data. AI fashions course of tokens to study the relationships between them and unlock capabilities together with prediction, era and reasoning. The sooner tokens will be processed, the sooner fashions can study and reply.
Today’s convention kickoff adopted a letter despatched by over 400 Hollywood heavyweights to the Trump White House warning that the profitable leisure business – one sector that runs a surplus stability of commerce with the remainder of the world – is threatened as AI giants attempt to skirt copyright legal guidelines to coach so-caled “large language models” like ChatGPT.
Huang additionally launched Blackwell Ultra, a brand new household of AI chips set to launch within the second half of 2025. He introduced Nvidia’s next-generation graphics processor coming in 2026. There was extra. But, regardless of the gang and stream of initiatives, Nvidia shares sank 3.4% in the present day, pulling tech shares and the Nasdaq decrease. The inventory has been beneath stress as traders weigh the pace of rollout, funding required and world competitors in AI.
Broader market fears additionally tamped down shares amid Donald Trump’s world commerce wars and a gathering of the Federal Reserve, which can weigh in on the economic system and rates of interest tomorrow. Stocks have been battered for many of the previous month.
GTC runs by way of March 21 with audio system and panels.