The Humanoid Robot of the Future Is a 6-Foot-Tall Beefcake With a Chinese Body and an American Brain
Key takeaways
- Taken together, they’ll make it easier for researchers, including US academic labs, to put together cutting-edge humanoids and train them with their own AI algorithms.
- The Thor chip can run powerful AI models that allow the bot to make sense of its environment and control its movements, while the body features Unitree’s motors, actuators, and sensors.
- (Yes, he’s Jensen’s son.) He added that the technology in H2 could potentially make other Chinese robots, including conventional industrial arms, more capable.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story. The humanoid robot of the future is a hulking specimen with a body that’s made in China and a brain that runs on American silicon.
This week, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, announced a blueprint for the bot, which combines a few different things: a 6-foot, 150-pound robot called H2 Plus from Unitree, a high-flying Chinese robotics startup; a Thor T5000 Nvidia chip; an advanced humanoid hand; and a new suite of software, which makes it easy to program and train the machine. Taken together, they’ll make it easier for researchers, including US academic labs, to put together cutting-edge humanoids and train them with their own AI algorithms.
The Thor chip can run powerful AI models that allow the bot to make sense of its environment and control its movements, while the body features Unitree’s motors, actuators, and sensors. The dextrous, humanlike hand from Singaporean company Sharpa can do everything from card tricks to peeling an apple. (Dexterity remains a key unsolved problem in robotics.)