In the recent Nvidia’s GTC AI Conference – also dubbed as the Super Bowl of AI – the audience was delighted to meet a guest that was no human but made every human smile. As Nvidia’s CEO – Jensen Huang – gave his address, he was joined by a small Star- Wars-like robot named “Blue” that looked quite similar to the droid shown in the famed Star Wars movie. With so many robots emerging in the technology landscape almost every week, why does Blue matter so much?

It’s because the droid such as Blue hold the promise to shift the way robots are used in the movies and can help to replace CGI with real-life robots that interact with humans as per the dictates of the movie scripts. Disney Research has partnered with Google and Nvidia to develop Newton – which is an open-source physics engine to enable droids like Blue to execute complex tasks with ease. Built using Nvidia’s Warp framework, Newton can help robots look more expressive and lifelike. If Blue and its forthcoming kins can interact with humans in a seamless fashion, they can revolutionize the entertainment robots industry.

Using mere “beep-boop” language, head nods and wiggles, Blue responded to the statements made by Huang on the stage. The cool interaction did show how such AI-enabled robots can pave the way for entertainment sector and can soon be deployed in entertainment parks such as Disneyland. Huang also unveiled Isaac GR00T N1 – an open-sourced foundational model for humanoid robots, which will be pre-trained and released to robotics developers globally. Such innovations are leading to a day when humanoids may soon replace humans in job sectors that have not been taken over by machines so far.

Though it was a delight to see Blue interacting with Huang on the stage and entertaining the audience, the day may not be far when seeing humanoid robots and droids in almost all job sectors will grow normal and humans may have to scout for jobs as much as for relevance in the society.