Humanoid Robots to Assemble NVIDIA's GB300 NVL72 "Blackwell Ultra"

[AleksandarK]

NVIDIA's upcoming GB300 NVL72 "Blackwell Ultra" rack-scale systems are reportedly going to get a humanoid robot assembly, according to sources close to Reuters. As readers are aware, most of the traditional manufacturing processes in silicon manufacturing, PCB manufacturing, and server manufacturing are automated, requiring little to no human intervention. However, rack-scale systems required humans for final assembly up until now. It appears that Foxconn and NVIDIA have made plans to open up the first AI-powered humanoid robot assembly plant in Houston, Texas. The central plan is that, in the coming months as the plant is completed, humanoid robots will take over the final assembly process entirely removing humans from the manufacturing loop.

And this is not a bad thing. Since server assembly typically requires lifting heavy server racks throughout the day, the humanoid robot system will aid humans by doing the hard work, thereby saving workers from excessive labor. Initially, humans will oversee these robots in their operations, with fully autonomous factories expected later on. The human element here will primarily involve inspecting the work. NVIDIA has been laying the groundwork for humanoid robots for some time, as the company has developed NVIDIA Isaac, a comprehensive CUDA-accelerated platform designed for humanoid robots. As models from Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Fourier, Foxlink, Galbot, Mentee Robotics, NEURA Robotics, General Robotics, Skild AI, and XPENG require models that are aware of their surroundings, NVIDIA created Isaac GR00T N1, the world's first open humanoid robot foundation model, available for anyone to use and finetune.




These models operate in tandem with numerous sensors and visual inputs that are processed on NVIDIA's Jetson-embedded modules, which provide instructions to humanoid robots. The entire ecosystem also utilizes NVIDIA's GR00T blueprint for generating synthetic data to finetune your humanoid robot, as well as the Newton AI physics engine to simulate robot behavior before deployment in factories like this. NVIDIA is essentially building its own infrastructure for manufacturing its most advanced AI accelerators.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Onasi]

Oh good, one step closer to a dystopia. Sure, we can say that “it’s just hard back-breaking labor, bro, it’s all good bro”, but I wonder if new job opportunities will be provided to people replaced. Just joking, I am not wondering, of course there won’t be.

 

[sepheronx]

Well, technically, if these are considered skilled jobs to do the labor, then there will be no reason to have the plants in countries like China or India or Taiwan or whatever.

I think some of the countries that push this hard don't seem to see the forest from the trees. Yeah, labor shortage or not wanting to pay people for benefits and vacation and what not may save you money. May not need to train new people either. But it also means whatever advantage you had in the market that allowed that company to work and thrive in said country; that benefit is gone. And they can pack up and leave to somewhere where taxes are lower and energy/resources are much cheaper.

There is also the side effect too of if no one is working, then you can kiss future tax payers goodbye. We already have a growing unemployment here in Canada. They say about 100,000 jobs are gone by end of this year. Child homeless rate and overall poverty rate is climbing. Child homelessness wasn't a thing when I was younger here.

People say that the invention of the tractor or auto CNC didn't make people lose jobs. No, it just meant a new skill was needed. Maybe reduced some overall workforce as 1 auto CNC machine could do the work of 3 manual lathes did in 1 go. But it still required someone to punch the info, check quality, make sure things work, etc. This is just a complete replacement of people overall.

Unless they start taxing the robots who are working and forcing these companies to pay heavy taxes, expect worst outcome.

Edit: to add

I keep hearing that this will just allow universal basic income and people can relax and not work as much. As much as I would like to get paid to sit on my ass and play video games all day and chase women (well, I am too fat to start chasing after them), UBI requires people to pay taxes. If less and less people are working, less and less income comes in to overall economy. Less spending on goods so no sales tax increase. Less people getting paid, so no income taxes increase. So the countries overall economy starts to tank. There wont be money for UBI either.

 

[R0H1T]

There is also the side effect too of if no one is working, then you can kiss future tax payers goodbye.

Side effect? That's like the inevitable black hole staring every AI influencer/peddler including trillion dollar companies like Nvidia. How the heck do these greedy goblins think this couldn't (d)evolve into

 

[Onasi]

Unless they start taxing the robots who are working and forcing these companies to pay heavy taxes, expect worst outcome.

No way any large corporations in major countries would allow something like that to go through, they would lobby it out of existence. The issue is that corporate tax has already been declining for years relatively speaking, they won’t allow anything to cut into their profits.

Side effect? That's like the inevitable black hole staring every AI influencer/peddler including trillion dollar companies like Nvidia. How the heck do these greedy goblins think this couldn't (d)evolve into

Because it doesn’t matter to them, their goal is increasing value for the shareholders, that’s the entire point. If things work out for the next financial quarter and the one after that maybe - it’s all good, they have money to play with. Despite all the grandiose speeches, societal impact isn’t something they seriously consider.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Well, technically, if these are considered skilled jobs to do the labor, then there will be no reason to have the plants in countries like China or India or Taiwan or whatever.

I think some of the countries that push this hard don't seem to see the forest from the trees. Yeah, labor shortage or not wanting to pay people for benefits and vacation and what not may save you money. May not need to train new people either. But it also means whatever advantage you had in the market that allowed that company to work and thrive in said country; that benefit is gone. And they can pack up and leave to somewhere where taxes are lower and energy/resources are much cheaper.

There is also the side effect too of if no one is working, then you can kiss future tax payers goodbye. We already have a growing unemployment here in Canada. They say about 100,000 jobs are gone by end of this year. Child homeless rate and overall poverty rate is climbing. Child homelessness wasn't a thing when I was younger here.

People say that the invention of the tractor or auto CNC didn't make people lose jobs. No, it just meant a new skill was needed. Maybe reduced some overall workforce as 1 auto CNC machine could do the work of 3 manual lathes did in 1 go. But it still required someone to punch the info, check quality, make sure things work, etc. This is just a complete replacement of people overall.

Unless they start taxing the robots who are working and forcing these companies to pay heavy taxes, expect worst outcome.

Edit: to add

I keep hearing that this will just allow universal basic income and people can relax and not work as much. As much as I would like to get paid to sit on my ass and play video games all day and chase women (well, I am too fat to start chasing after them), UBI requires people to pay taxes. If less and less people are working, less and less income comes in to overall economy. Less spending on goods so no sales tax increase. Less people getting paid, so no income taxes increase. So the countries overall economy starts to tank. There wont be money for UBI either.

The carbon they want to reduce is you.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Oh wait, I saw the humanoid robot that steal the Huang's leather jacket.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Oh wait, I saw the humanoid robot that steal the Huang's leather jacket.

That's OK, it's just a jacket. What will happen when humanoid robots steal our hearts?

 

[sepheronx]

That's OK, it's just a jacket. What will happen when humanoid robots steal our hearts?

Jokes on them, I'll be stealing their heart after my inevitable heart attack

 

[TumbleGeorge]

That's OK, it's just a jacket. What will happen when humanoid robots steal our hearts?

You don't believe me. Here when the robot return jacket to Jensen:

 

[Dr. Dro]

You don't believe me. Here when the robot return jacket to Jensen:

It's not that I don't believe you, lol, just making light of the subject

Jokes on them, I'll be stealing their heart after my inevitable heart attack

It'll be worth it. Qingyi my beloved

 

[Rover4444]

That's OK, it's just a jacket. What will happen when humanoid robots steal our hearts?

It's too late for me, my brother... much too late, indeed.....

 

[sethmatrix7]

And this is not a bad thing.

 

[Endymio]

...but I wonder if new job opportunities will be provided to people replaced. Just joking, I am not wondering, of course there won’t be.

People like you have been "wondering" the same thing since the 1700s, when powered looms began replacing hand weaving of cloth -- and those Luddites began smashing those looms to protect their jobs.

Yet somehow, we've still managed.

 

[R-T-B]

Oh good, one step closer to a dystopia. Sure, we can say that “it’s just hard back-breaking labor, bro, it’s all good bro”, but I wonder if new job opportunities will be provided to people replaced. Just joking, I am not wondering, of course there won’t be.

What actually needs to happen if robots take all the jobs is a form of universal income... and we all know that'll never happen so gg guys.

 

[the54thvoid]

People like you have been "wondering" the same thing since the 1700s, when powered looms began replacing hand weaving of cloth -- and those Luddites began smashing those looms to protect their jobs.

Yet somehow, we've still managed.

The term Luddite is used erroneously by most people (myself included until I learned more about it a few years back). The Smithsonian has a really good article on it. In brief - it wasn't about technoogy replacing jobs (actually more jobs were created by the expansion of certain, easier-to-master, technologies). They were mainly protesting working practices/wages etc, set in place by unscrupulous mill owners.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/

In the context of this article - it already says there are few jobs in that specific area, so the robots aren't really a big deal. Automation in the chip industry is already substantial.

 

[dyonoctis]

People like you have been "wondering" the same thing since the 1700s, when powered looms began replacing hand weaving of cloth -- and those Luddites began smashing those looms to protect their jobs.

Yet somehow, we've still managed.

A.I seems a bit different is the sense that it's being pushed to be as autonomous and ubiquituous as possible. Software engineers at Amazon already start to feel like that their jobs mainly consist to check if the code generated by A.I is good enough. But happens to that field once A.I becomes good enough to make good code on a consistent basis?

"Like an assembly line": Amazon engineers feel squeezed by AI-driven workflow

Teams that once counted a dozen developers have been cut in half, yet the volume of code they're expected to deliver remains unchanged – a shift that...

www.techspot.com

The music producer Timbaland is already giving up on human artist.

Timbaland's New Artist Is Young, Photogenic -- and Not Human

Timbaland talks about launching an AI start-up and an AI-generated singer, TaTa

www.rollingstone.com

I feel like we don't really realise how much, and how fast the reality is shifting. A lot of the areas that are seen to safe only make that judgement based on the current state of A.I, but that tech is growing fast, and is mainly designed to reduce the operating cost of big companies who are their biggest clients.

 

[Endymio]

The term Luddite is used erroneously by most people (myself included until I learned more about it a few years back). The Smithsonian has a really good article on it. In brief - it wasn't about technoogy replacing jobs (actually more jobs were created by the expansion of certain, easier-to-master, technologies). They were mainly protesting working practices/wages etc, set in place by unscrupulous mill owners.

Historical revisionism is a real thing.

"...The original Luddites were British weavers and textile workers who objected to the increased use of mechanized looms and knitting frames. Most were trained artisans who had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood. [When] cheap competition of early textile factories particularly threatening to the artisans, a few desperate weavers began breaking into factories and smashing textile machines....."

"...The first major instances of machine breaking took place in 1811 in Nottingham, and the practice soon spread across the English countryside. Machine-breaking Luddites attacked and burned factories, and in some cases, they even exchanged gunfire with company guards and soldiers. The workers hoped their raids would deter employers from installing expensive machinery, but the British government instead moved to quash the uprisings by making machine breaking punishable by death.....

Who Were the Luddites? | HISTORY

“Luddite” is now a blanket term used to describe people who dislike new technology, but its origins date back to an e...

www.history.com

 

[yfn_ratchet]

Historical revisionism is a real thing.

If I may propose something to you philosophically:

What makes you believe that the source you cited is correct, and that the source the54thvoid cited is incorrect? Who is to say that the story of Luddites causing rampant property damage merely for fear of losing their cottage jobs to the scary machine isn't a falsified account of the what and why?

Oft in the world, you must consider whom benefits from what the truth is accepted to be. I know I sound like I'm wrapping myself in tin foil here, but seriously, consider it. Who is depicted in the right, and who is depicted in the wrong? The workers are depicted as being in the wrong, and the textile company owners are depicted as being in the right. It's rare that things are as clear-cut as that.

I would much sooner accept that not only were the Luddites afraid of losing their jobs (which they may have vested their life's purpose in, mind you), they were afraid of facing worsening treatment, of being devalued (i.e. paid less and worked more), of being stripped of benefits they might have had in their line of work. It's not that difficult to imagine, when not even young children were spared the lung-blackening pollution and soot of early industrial cities, when people would regularly lose fingers, hands, arms, lives to the new-fangled machines that were meant to improve their lives.

 

[Rover4444]

What makes you guys think history even happened? Were you there? Didn't think so

 

[Vya Domus]

I can't believe the "humanoid robot workers" scam is still going on after all this time.

 

[ARF]

How long is the "life" of such a machine before it gets corrosion or other types of malfunctions, or its MTBF? And more importantly, who will service them? They themselves?
If so, then the real humans have no place on the Earth.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

If I may propose something to you philosophically:

What makes you believe that the source you cited is correct, and that the source the54thvoid cited is incorrect? Who is to say that the story of Luddites causing rampant property damage merely for fear of losing their cottage jobs to the scary machine isn't a falsified account of the what and why?

Oft in the world, you must consider whom benefits from what the truth is accepted to be. I know I sound like I'm wrapping myself in tin foil here, but seriously, consider it. Who is depicted in the right, and who is depicted in the wrong? The workers are depicted as being in the wrong, and the textile company owners are depicted as being in the right. It's rare that things are as clear-cut as that.

I would much sooner accept that not only were the Luddites afraid of losing their jobs (which they may have vested their life's purpose in, mind you), they were afraid of facing worsening treatment, of being devalued (i.e. paid less and worked more), of being stripped of benefits they might have had in their line of work. It's not that difficult to imagine, when not even young children were spared the lung-blackening pollution and soot of early industrial cities, when people would regularly lose fingers, hands, arms, lives to the new-fangled machines that were meant to improve their lives.

See above. When you start claiming that things like Rationality only exist because white people did it, and therefore PoC adopted it to avoid racism, ANY claim your organization makes regarding the actual intentions or thoughts of a group, or frankly any claims you make period, are called into question. Either because A.) your organization is making insane politically charged claims, and we can only assume that political bent had infected more of your organization then is admitted, or B.) they're right, and therefore the rational, cause and effect arguments they are making are actually whiteness personified, and are therefore racist and wrong.

To put it simply: The Smithsonian burned their credibility at the feet of modern political nonsense, the pool is poisoned, everything they claim can be called into question. There is no reason to assume their claims that the luddites were actually fighting against the "unscrupulous mill owners" is actually accurate, as opposed to being colored by historical revisionism, the same type that is promoted by groups that promote the above narratives.

I would need to see another unaffiliated group go through the evidence the Smithsonian purportedly has for this claim and explain how they came to that conclusion before I'd believe them.

 

[Rover4444]

Oh BROTHER here we go.

I'm outta here.

 

[freeagent]

Yup, we are in for it.