Nvidia adds generative AI suite to Omniverse platform
The AI hardware/software vendor released new generative AI tools for developers. It also updated its Omniverse Enterprise platform and introduced registration for avatar builders.
Nvidia released new metaverse technologies for enterprises with a suite of generative AI tools.
The AI hardware and software vendor on Jan. 3 at the CES 2023 conference introduced its Omniverse portals with generative AI for 3D and RTX, updates to its Omniverse Enterprise platform, and an early access program for developers who want to build avatars and virtual assistants.
The vendor has added a new suite of experimental generative AI tools for 3D artists, including Audio2Face, Audio2Gesture and Audio2Emotion, enabling users to animate 3D characters. The updates to these tools enable creators to generate facial expressions from an audio file with Audio2Face and create emotions with Audio2Emotion and gestures with Audio2Gesture.
The vendor also said all users of RTX -- a computing platform used to design large, complex AI models -- would be able to download an update to the painting program Canvas that enables users to create and conceptualize panoramic environments and beautiful images.
"Adding generative AI tools to Omniverse enables creators to automate certain tasks and hence be more creative quickly," said Patrick Moorhead, founder and analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.
By Nvidia staying close to creators and developers, it can get a jump on the software and hardware tools it needs to stay ahead.
Patrick MoorheadFounder and analyst, Moor Insights and Strategy
By enabling users to create 3D objects from 2D images and videos, automate facial expressions on a 3D model, and do simple background optimizations, Nvidia aims to save creators the time they spent manually performing those tasks, Moorhead said.
"By Nvidia staying close to creators and developers, it can get a jump on the software and hardware tools it needs to stay ahead," he said. In addition, by staying close to the latest breakthroughs creators and developers are making in the metaverse, Nvidia can gain enough insight to offer timely hardware, software and services.
Advancements in the metaverse
Nvidia is providing enterprises and creators with tools that will make metaverse technologies work, said Rob Enderle, owner and analyst at Enderle Group.
"We're really at the front end of this technology, and it's the tools that allow this technology to work that are the most critical," Enderle said.
Also, Nvidia is among the leading vendors that are accelerating the advancements of these metaverse tools, which can automate or augment enterprise tasks to deal with pandemic-sparked labor shortages, he said.
"Advancement was pretty slow last decade," Enderle said. "These tools help with massive swings toward automation."
Even so, Nvidia, like other vendors, continues to struggle with how to make the metaverse mainstream, Moorhead said.
"Many companies are grappling with this, like Meta, Qualcomm, Apple, Google and, of course, Nvidia," Moorhead said. "The consumer metaverse is very limited today."
Other Nvidia news from CES
In addition to adding generative AI tools, Nvidia introduced updates to its Omniverse Enterprise platform, available now.
Updates include the following:
new connectors that enable a more connected workflow between 3D applications;
Omniverse DeepSearch, which lets teams search through large untagged 3D databases with natural language or 2D images; and
Omniverse Cloud, which includes new cloud containers for Enterprise Nucleus Server, Replicator, Farm and Isaac Sim for AWS that help enterprises better manage teams.
The vendor also revealed that developers who want to create new avatars can sign up for early access to Nvidia Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine, a service that Nvidia said makes building avatars at scale easier.
