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Episode 10

The Robot Revolution: Nvidia's GROOT, Neuralink Breakthroughs & Our Cyborg Future

Summary Dalton discusses two groundbreaking projects in this episode: NVIDIA's Project Groot and Neuralink's human trials. Project Groot is part of NVIDIA's Gear project roadmap and aims to…

Apr 2, 202400:43:57
Listen to the episode00:43:57

Summary Dalton discusses two groundbreaking projects in this episode: NVIDIA's Project Groot and Neuralink's human trials. Project Groot is part of NVIDIA's Gear project roadmap and aims to create a foundational model using Legos as an analogy. It combines Omniverse, Isaac Lab, and LLMs to enable robots to learn and perform tasks. Neuralink, on the other hand, focuses on connecting the brain to computers and robots. Dalton shares the inspiring story of Nolan Arbosh, who regained independence through Neuralink's chip implant. He also highlights the ethical concerns and the potential impact of AI and technology on society. Takeaways NVIDIA's Project Groot combines Omniverse, Isaac Lab, and LLMs to create a foundational model for robot learning and task performance. Neuralink's human trials have shown promising results, allowing individuals like Nolan Arbosh to regain independence through brain-computer interfaces. The rapid advancement of AI and technology raises ethical concerns and society needs to establish appropriate guidelines. Both projects can revolutionize various industries, including manufacturing, elderly care, and space travel.

Episode content

Explore every layer of this episode.

Each article, guide, analysis, and field note has its own focused page and stays linked to this source conversation.

Articles & stories

Narrative and editorial pieces that carry the conversation forward.

13 pieces
Article

What GR00T and Neuralink Demonstrated in 2024

A careful retrospective on NVIDIA Project GR00T and Neuralink's first participant demo, separating visible capability from evidence of readiness.

1 min read
Article

How Simulation Changes Robotics Development

Simulation and reusable robot models can shorten development loops, but physical transfer, safety, maintenance, and task reliability remain separate gates.

1 min read
Article

Robotics and Neurotechnology Need Safeguards

Why evidence, informed consent, refusal, privacy, maintenance, incident response, and accountable control are part of high-impact technology readiness.

1 min read
Article

NVIDIA Isaac GR00T: Models, Tools, and Status

A current profile of NVIDIA Isaac GR00T from the 2024 initiative through N1.7 early access, with release, access, and deployment evidence separated.

1 min read
Article

NVIDIA Isaac GR00T: Models, Tools, and Status

A current profile of NVIDIA Isaac GR00T from the 2024 initiative through N1.7 early access, with release, access, and deployment evidence separated.

1 min read
Article

What NVIDIA GR00T and Neuralink Actually Demonstrated

A clear look at NVIDIA Project GR00T, Neuralink's PRIME study, what the 2024 demonstrations showed, and what still required evidence.

1 min read
Article

Neuralink PRIME Study

The PRIME study is Neuralink's first-in-human early-feasibility study of the N1 Implant and R1 surgical robot for control of external devices.

1 min read
Article

Neuralink PRIME Study: Status, Design, and Results

A registry-led profile of Neuralink's PRIME early feasibility study, including NCT06429735, enrollment, dates, devices, sponsor reports, and evidence gaps.

1 min read
Article

Neuralink N1 Implant: Status, Studies, and Evidence

A careful profile of Neuralink's investigational N1 Implant, how it relates to PRIME and CONVOY, and what current sponsor and registry records establish.

1 min read
Article

Neuralink N1 Implant: Status, Studies, and Evidence

A careful profile of Neuralink's investigational N1 Implant, how it relates to PRIME and CONVOY, and what current sponsor and registry records establish.

1 min read
Article

Neuralink: Company, Devices, and Clinical Studies

A source-led Neuralink profile covering its implanted BCI work, N1 and R1 systems, clinical-study sponsorship, official routes, and evidence boundaries.

1 min read
Article

How to Evaluate a High-Impact Technology Demo

A practical evidence ladder for testing what an AI, robotics, or medical technology demonstration proves and what evidence must come next.

1 min read
Article

E010 Content Extraction

| Opportunity | Format | Disposition | Destination or reason | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What the 2024 GR00T and Neuralink demonstrations showed | Episode article | Pro

1 min read

Research & analysis

Evidence-led work that tests and expands the claims in the conversation.

8 pieces
Research Note

Robotics Simulation-to-Deployment Evidence Record

Simulation and reusable models can shorten robotics development loops. They do not remove the gap between a modeled environment and a physical system.

1 min read
Research Note

PRIME Study Registry and Sponsor Evidence Record

The current [ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT06429735](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06429735) identifies PRIME as a recruiting, first-in-human, interventional ear

1 min read
Research Note

NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Release and Evidence Record

[NVIDIA's March 18, 2024 announcement](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/foundation-model-isaac-robotics-platform) introduced Project GR00T as an initiative for general-

1 min read
Research Note

Neuralink Sponsor Identity and Clinical Boundary Record

Neuralink develops implanted brain-computer-interface systems and sponsors clinical research involving the N1 Implant, R1 Robot, and related software.

1 min read
Research Note

Neuralink N1 Device and Regulatory Status Record

The N1 Implant is Neuralink's investigational implanted brain-computer interface. The [PRIME registry record](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06429735) describes a sk

1 min read
Research Note

High-Impact Systems Consent and Safeguard Record

Human agency is part of readiness when a system can affect a person's body, movement, privacy, work, care, or physical environment. Evidence alone is insufficient if the

1 min read
Research Note

High-Impact Technology Demonstration Evidence Ladder

A demonstration can establish that an event occurred under selected conditions. It cannot, by itself, establish repeatability, robustness, usability, safety, operational

1 min read
Research Note

E010 Historical Demonstration and Correction Boundary

The preserved E010 transcript records Dalton Anderson's reaction to two different 2024 events. NVIDIA introduced Project GR00T as a development initiative for humanoid ro

1 min read

Full episode

Read the complete record.

The show notes, transcript, and source trail remain on this canonical episode page.

Show notesKey context from the episode.

Dalton Anderson examines NVIDIA's newly announced Project GR00T and Neuralink's first human brain-computer-interface participant, then asks how evidence and safeguards can keep pace with technological ambition.

What the episode covers

Dalton uses a LEGO analogy to explain the idea behind a general-purpose robot foundation model. He discusses simulation, Isaac Lab, language interfaces, human demonstrations, and the difficulty of transferring a learned task into a new physical environment.

The second half describes Noland Arbaugh's early experience using Neuralink's investigational implant to control a computer. Dalton connects that story to independence while raising concerns about clinical uncertainty, research ethics, and the social effects of rapidly developing technology.

Key moments

TimeMoment
00:53Project GR00T and the PRIME study
03:11NVIDIA's embodied-AI research direction
04:02A LEGO analogy for general-purpose models
07:35Learning robot skills in simulation
10:23Isaac Lab as a robot-learning environment
13:25Natural-language commands and robot actions
14:48Learning from human demonstrations
17:18What NVIDIA showed in its robot demo
19:15Potential uses and safety questions
22:37Why a selected demo deserves skepticism
24:14Noland Arbaugh and the N1 implant
26:35Computer control and digital independence
34:12Ethical and research concerns
38:09When technology moves faster than institutions

The central takeaway

A demonstration can establish that a capability deserves further testing. It cannot establish long-term safety, general reliability, clinical benefit, affordability, or readiness for a new environment.

Listen

Listen on Spotify or watch on YouTube.

The complete timestamped SRT is preserved without editorial rewriting in E10 - Transcript - ep10-the-robot-revolution-from-neuralink-to-nvidias-groot (SRT only 1).

TranscriptRead the full conversation.

Ep10 The Robot Revolution_ Nvidia_s GROOT, Neuralink Breakthroughs & Our Cyborg Future

Timestamped transcript

1 00:00:01,166 --> 00:00:06,566 Welcome to Venture Step Podcasts where we discuss entrepreneurship, industry trends,

2 00:00:06,566 --> 00:00:08,806 and the occasional book review.

3 00:00:09,786 --> 00:00:14,406 Get ready for a future where robots cook your dinner, care for your grandparents,

4 00:00:14,406 --> 00:00:17,206 and maybe even read your mind.

5 00:00:17,206 --> 00:00:22,126 NVIDIA's Project Groot and Neuralink's mind -blowing human trials are making sci

6 00:00:22,126 --> 00:00:23,466 -fi a reality.

7 00:00:23,466 --> 00:00:26,906 Before you dive in, I'm Dalton, your host.

8 00:00:27,226 --> 00:00:27,788 My...

9 00:00:27,788 --> 00:00:31,757 Background is a bit of a mix of programming and insurance offline.

10 00:00:31,757 --> 00:00:37,358 You could find me running lost in a good book or building my side business.

11 00:00:37,358 --> 00:00:43,838 You can listen to the podcasts in video or audio format on Spotify or YouTube.

12 00:00:44,037 --> 00:00:48,658 If audio is your thing, you can of course find the podcast on Apple podcasts,

13 00:00:48,858 --> 00:00:53,698 Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts.

14 00:00:53,698 --> 00:00:57,038 Today we'll be discussing the videos project Groot.

15 00:00:57,038 --> 00:01:02,898 that was announced two weeks ago during Nvidia's conference slash project roadmap

16 00:01:02,898 --> 00:01:03,898 demo.

17 00:01:04,338 --> 00:01:08,558 We'll also be discussing Neuralink's human trials.

18 00:01:08,558 --> 00:01:14,818 Neuralink recently was approved by the FDA to do human trials, their first human

19 00:01:14,818 --> 00:01:15,600 trial.

20 00:01:17,070 --> 00:01:22,390 and that individual had their surgery in January.

21 00:01:22,390 --> 00:01:24,670 It took them, I think a month to recover.

22 00:01:25,089 --> 00:01:33,169 Two weeks ago, Neuralink sent out videos, a live demo with Nolan and Nolan was the

23 00:01:33,169 --> 00:01:39,170 first human where Neuralink is being prescribed to.

24 00:01:40,050 --> 00:01:41,248 Nolan was.

25 00:01:42,766 --> 00:01:49,936 or not was, but is paralyzed from the chest down from a freak diving accident, I

26 00:01:49,936 --> 00:01:53,426 think eight years ago, and he lives with his parents.

27 00:01:53,706 --> 00:01:58,926 And basically the video kind of discussed how Neuralink has changed his life.

28 00:01:59,106 --> 00:02:01,026 And it's only been a short time.

29 00:02:01,026 --> 00:02:06,606 And so I think it was it's a really touching story about how technology can

30 00:02:06,606 --> 00:02:12,022 can help out and improve the day to day lives of.

31 00:02:12,142 --> 00:02:18,992 of people that you might not see on the surface, but they're around and they need

32 00:02:18,992 --> 00:02:24,842 help and they don't want to have to rely on other people.

33 00:02:25,062 --> 00:02:32,982 They want to have some level of independence, either born that way or

34 00:02:32,982 --> 00:02:39,702 freak accidents or choices, you know, led to independence being taken away.

35 00:02:39,922 --> 00:02:41,296 And NVIDIA,

36 00:02:42,926 --> 00:02:49,018 slash neurolink slash figure slash.

37 00:02:50,670 --> 00:02:55,846 Tesla Optimus has a promise to...

38 00:02:57,390 --> 00:03:01,350 give people independence again.

39 00:03:02,450 --> 00:03:07,150 And then maybe if we have enough time, I don't think I'll talk about it, but when

40 00:03:07,150 --> 00:03:11,290 tech outpaces society, maybe I could touch upon it a little bit.

41 00:03:11,770 --> 00:03:17,570 But for Groot, so Groot once again was announced by Nvidia a couple weeks ago,

42 00:03:18,010 --> 00:03:25,050 and Groot is part of the project roadmap for Gear.

43 00:03:25,050 --> 00:03:26,350 Gear is a...

44 00:03:26,350 --> 00:03:33,410 An additional research arm that NVIDIA spun up with Jim Fan being the head of it.

45 00:03:33,410 --> 00:03:40,050 Jim Fan is like, I think the head of AI research and innovation at NVIDIA.

46 00:03:40,790 --> 00:03:49,280 Jim Fan got his PhD at Stanford, and I think he was a professor for some time or

47 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:55,180 still is, but he's obviously highly involved with NVIDIA and is heading the

48 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:56,196 next.

49 00:03:56,622 --> 00:04:01,702 chapter with AI research at Nvidia.

50 00:04:02,662 --> 00:04:09,642 And so Groot is a foundational model and I'm not sure everyone understands what a

51 00:04:09,642 --> 00:04:12,242 foundational model, but we'll discuss it.

52 00:04:12,242 --> 00:04:19,482 And I think that the best way to do so is with an analogy with Legos.

53 00:04:19,862 --> 00:04:25,986 So say that you have three Legos, you have one Lego that is

54 00:04:26,670 --> 00:04:30,970 just the Legos, just basic Legos, nothing much about it.

55 00:04:30,970 --> 00:04:36,690 Then you have another set of Legos that is a kit to build a princess castle.

56 00:04:37,550 --> 00:04:43,220 And the kit, you know, follow the instructions, you can build the princess

57 00:04:43,220 --> 00:04:48,210 castle, and then you have another set that's also a kit that builds a Batmobile,

58 00:04:49,030 --> 00:04:50,028 right?

59 00:04:51,694 --> 00:04:58,014 And those kits could be represent purpose -built models.

60 00:04:58,014 --> 00:05:04,404 And so a purpose -built model, if you build a Batmobile, the model knows exactly

61 00:05:04,404 --> 00:05:06,554 how to build a Batmobile.

62 00:05:06,554 --> 00:05:13,774 Or if you build a Princess Castle, the model can build the best Princess Castle.

63 00:05:14,054 --> 00:05:21,312 But if you ask it to build, say, you ask the Batmobile,

64 00:05:21,390 --> 00:05:28,450 kit or you, I guess in this analogy, if you try to build a princess castle using

65 00:05:28,450 --> 00:05:33,180 the batmobile kit, you're obviously not going to be able to do so because you're

66 00:05:33,180 --> 00:05:34,070 not going to have the right parts.

67 00:05:34,070 --> 00:05:35,710 You're not going to have the right instructions.

68 00:05:35,710 --> 00:05:44,350 And so that's the point of a foundational model or general purpose model is where

69 00:05:44,350 --> 00:05:50,382 you have these basic blocks and these basic blocks are just different.

70 00:05:50,382 --> 00:05:55,952 models combined into each other that are considered the building blocks, right?

71 00:05:55,952 --> 00:06:03,002 Like as a human, you have hearing, you have sight, taste, smell, touch.

72 00:06:03,002 --> 00:06:08,822 And so you have all these senses and all of these senses give you data on your

73 00:06:08,822 --> 00:06:14,862 environment and what you're doing and how you're doing it and if it's good or bad.

74 00:06:15,482 --> 00:06:20,174 And so that's what is trying to be achieved with a

75 00:06:20,174 --> 00:06:25,614 foundational model or general purpose model is you just have these basic Legos

76 00:06:25,614 --> 00:06:32,474 and these Legos you could build a Batmobile, you could build this princess

77 00:06:32,474 --> 00:06:33,488 castle.

78 00:06:35,234 --> 00:06:37,794 without having the instructions.

79 00:06:38,794 --> 00:06:44,784 But to do that, you need a solid understanding of your environment, a solid

80 00:06:44,784 --> 00:06:55,384 understanding of physics, a grasp of how to interact with your, how your body

81 00:06:55,384 --> 00:06:57,854 interacts with your external environment.

82 00:06:58,474 --> 00:07:04,274 Crazy things like, okay, when you step as a robot, how...

83 00:07:04,398 --> 00:07:11,228 How long should you wait until you take your next step or how much force in the

84 00:07:11,228 --> 00:07:18,318 rotation between steps and where do you kind of lean your body and how do you

85 00:07:18,318 --> 00:07:21,798 lower your center of gravity on slippery surfaces?

86 00:07:21,798 --> 00:07:27,598 All these crazy things that we don't think is very complicated because we just do

87 00:07:27,598 --> 00:07:32,298 them is pretty complicated for robots.

88 00:07:32,938 --> 00:07:34,382 And so,

89 00:07:35,246 --> 00:07:40,346 One of the ways that you can tackle this is with reinforcement learning, and this

90 00:07:40,346 --> 00:07:44,486 is typically done in a simulated environment.

91 00:07:45,046 --> 00:07:48,046 Other people would call it virtual reality.

92 00:07:48,606 --> 00:07:51,068 So in this simulated environment,

93 00:07:52,654 --> 00:08:00,264 they would do a task and say the robot would climb the stairs and then it would

94 00:08:00,264 --> 00:08:01,324 learn how to climb the stairs.

95 00:08:01,324 --> 00:08:04,694 It would climb the stairs like 200 ,000 times.

96 00:08:04,694 --> 00:08:09,714 And then after the robot could probably climb the stairs in the simulation, then

97 00:08:09,714 --> 00:08:12,934 they would try to do so in the real world.

98 00:08:13,554 --> 00:08:21,224 And so the robot would do the same thing and maybe they'll pour some water on the

99 00:08:21,224 --> 00:08:22,234 stairs.

100 00:08:23,854 --> 00:08:27,094 and the robot slips and they have to go back to the drawing board.

101 00:08:27,394 --> 00:08:34,114 And typically, or not typically, but the way that the Boston Dynamics does it is

102 00:08:34,114 --> 00:08:40,154 they have these code -built models where the developers slash engineers, they build

103 00:08:40,154 --> 00:08:45,434 these models and they code out the conditions and write what you're supposed

104 00:08:45,434 --> 00:08:47,314 to do in certain situations.

105 00:08:47,374 --> 00:08:50,422 And then they supplement it with reinforcement learning.

106 00:08:51,918 --> 00:08:53,978 And that's kind of what Groot is doing.

107 00:08:53,978 --> 00:08:57,038 They'll have reinforcement learning, which is Omniverse.

108 00:08:57,038 --> 00:09:04,638 And so Omniverse is a hyper -realistic physics -built model that has many

109 00:09:04,638 --> 00:09:05,818 purposes.

110 00:09:06,438 --> 00:09:14,798 One being, I spoke about it maybe seven episodes ago with Lockheed Martin using it

111 00:09:14,798 --> 00:09:20,370 to simulate global warming and how global warming would affect the environment.

112 00:09:21,422 --> 00:09:24,922 Another good example would be for Dune 2.

113 00:09:24,922 --> 00:09:35,022 Dune 2, they used omniverse to simulate the generation or they use omniverse to

114 00:09:35,022 --> 00:09:42,962 generate and simulate the grains of sand when the dune worm was moving around.

115 00:09:42,962 --> 00:09:47,472 Like, you know how like the sand was like swooshing around and looked crazy

116 00:09:47,472 --> 00:09:48,522 realistic?

117 00:09:48,662 --> 00:09:50,830 That was from

118 00:09:50,830 --> 00:09:51,896 Omniverse.

119 00:09:53,472 --> 00:09:56,752 sidebar but the Dune movie was great.

120 00:09:56,752 --> 00:10:04,022 I really enjoyed it and I can't wait for Dune 3 or if there is, if there's not, I

121 00:10:04,022 --> 00:10:04,682 don't know.

122 00:10:04,682 --> 00:10:08,572 I can't tell you because if you haven't seen the movie I don't want to ruin it

123 00:10:08,572 --> 00:10:09,318 but...

124 00:10:10,798 --> 00:10:11,398 It was great.

125 00:10:11,398 --> 00:10:13,638 You should definitely see it.

126 00:10:13,978 --> 00:10:20,890 Anyways, so Omniverse is this hyper holistic physics base model.

127 00:10:23,022 --> 00:10:29,762 they built a lab on top of it called Isaac's Lab on top of Omniverse.

128 00:10:30,782 --> 00:10:39,892 So Isaac Lab is a, I guess, think about it as a robotics playground where robots

129 00:10:39,892 --> 00:10:45,402 would be able to do these reinforcement learning activities.

130 00:10:45,682 --> 00:10:52,582 So that would entail a robot doing simulations and the

131 00:10:53,518 --> 00:10:57,268 robot in this case, I mean, it's called an agent because it's not really the robot's

132 00:10:57,268 --> 00:11:01,428 not there, but it's easier to talk about it as if the robot is there.

133 00:11:01,428 --> 00:11:06,758 So the robot is doing X thing in the simulation.

134 00:11:06,758 --> 00:11:17,238 And what's cool about it is the robot would learn a thousand times faster in the

135 00:11:17,238 --> 00:11:23,054 Isaac lab than it would in a real time simulation.

136 00:11:23,854 --> 00:11:32,674 So the throughput between real time versus simulated environment is a thousand times,

137 00:11:33,454 --> 00:11:36,874 which is a lot.

138 00:11:37,874 --> 00:11:43,534 It's really hard to put a perspective on it.

139 00:11:43,814 --> 00:11:47,754 But I think that that's huge, right?

140 00:11:47,754 --> 00:11:50,214 So they have this omniverse piece.

141 00:11:50,214 --> 00:11:51,754 So that would be reinforcement learning.

142 00:11:51,754 --> 00:11:53,948 And then they have LLMs.

143 00:11:53,998 --> 00:11:59,018 So large language models, you know, I've talked about them many times on the show,

144 00:11:59,018 --> 00:12:06,798 but a large language model is a model that communicates via text and is trained on

145 00:12:06,798 --> 00:12:14,928 lots of texts and they have a lot of parameters, like a billion, and they are

146 00:12:14,928 --> 00:12:23,502 able to talk about many topics if it involves text and or I guess audio.

147 00:12:23,502 --> 00:12:27,482 you can do depending on the situation and the model you're using.

148 00:12:29,782 --> 00:12:32,982 But Groot is also gonna be using LLMs.

149 00:12:32,982 --> 00:12:38,462 And so think about Omniverse, Isaac Labs as one building block, and then think

150 00:12:38,462 --> 00:12:41,622 about LLMs as another building block.

151 00:12:41,622 --> 00:12:46,692 And they keep building on these little kind of side projects and they combine

152 00:12:46,692 --> 00:12:53,038 them into this foundational model with all these other

153 00:12:53,038 --> 00:12:58,138 pieces that one might be your sight, one might be your hearing.

154 00:12:58,138 --> 00:13:09,638 And so I don't know what the omniverse would be, but maybe LLMs is easy, where

155 00:13:09,638 --> 00:13:17,958 LLMs would be your, I guess your voice, that's not really a sense, but that, or

156 00:13:17,958 --> 00:13:19,798 your hearing.

157 00:13:20,278 --> 00:13:22,926 Yeah, your voice and your hearing, okay.

158 00:13:22,926 --> 00:13:25,606 I stumbled there.

159 00:13:25,606 --> 00:13:32,956 So with LLMs hooked up to the robots, like using the group model, robots would be

160 00:13:32,956 --> 00:13:39,195 able to communicate back to you and they would also be able to understand tasks on

161 00:13:39,195 --> 00:13:40,386 the fly.

162 00:13:40,726 --> 00:13:45,996 And so you could ask in the demo they show and we'll show it in a second, but they

163 00:13:45,996 --> 00:13:50,734 show, Hey, can you, can you give me a high five?

164 00:13:50,734 --> 00:14:02,024 and the robot understands here's the audio, turns the audio into text, then the

165 00:14:02,024 --> 00:14:06,194 text understands what it needs to do and what inputs it needs to do for the

166 00:14:06,194 --> 00:14:07,074 machine.

167 00:14:07,074 --> 00:14:11,454 And then the machine puts its hand up, goes for the high five.

168 00:14:12,314 --> 00:14:13,444 That's pretty cool.

169 00:14:13,444 --> 00:14:16,274 And they also ask, oh, can you show me some moves?

170 00:14:16,274 --> 00:14:17,894 And then it gets jiggy with it.

171 00:14:17,894 --> 00:14:19,892 And I think it does a dab.

172 00:14:20,046 --> 00:14:21,226 It does a dab.

173 00:14:21,226 --> 00:14:26,046 If you're not familiar what a dab is, it's kind of when you have your opposite arm

174 00:14:26,046 --> 00:14:31,246 and you kind of put it towards your face, like towards your nose, and then you point

175 00:14:31,246 --> 00:14:34,006 your other arm like parallel.

176 00:14:34,666 --> 00:14:37,354 And I'm dabbing if you guys are watching video.

177 00:14:38,862 --> 00:14:40,302 Diving on the internet.

178 00:14:41,062 --> 00:14:48,042 But so they have the LLMs, they have the Omniverse, which is the Isaac Labs.

179 00:14:48,042 --> 00:14:53,902 Then they also have this other thing, which is pretty cool, called Mimikgen.

180 00:14:54,182 --> 00:15:02,732 Mimikgen, I think was created in 2023, but Mimikgen allows a human to control the

181 00:15:02,732 --> 00:15:03,602 robot.

182 00:15:05,230 --> 00:15:15,250 with VR and not only control, but teach the robot what to do.

183 00:15:15,250 --> 00:15:23,170 And so one, one example might be, okay, so in a simulation you are teaching the robot

184 00:15:23,170 --> 00:15:32,900 to cook and the robot needs to take the cookie sheet or pan or whatever the

185 00:15:32,900 --> 00:15:33,966 robot's doing.

186 00:15:33,966 --> 00:15:35,786 takes the pan out of the oven.

187 00:15:36,566 --> 00:15:41,326 And the simulation, they do that, I don't know, a thousand times.

188 00:15:41,326 --> 00:15:43,166 They take the pan out of the oven, put it on the counter.

189 00:15:43,166 --> 00:15:45,030 Take the pan out of the oven, put it on the counter.

190 00:15:46,510 --> 00:15:49,710 in the real world, the oven might be in an odd spot.

191 00:15:49,710 --> 00:15:53,800 It might not be on the ground where not the ground, but you know what I mean?

192 00:15:53,800 --> 00:16:01,990 Like the oven might be one of those wall ovens where it's hidden or it might be the

193 00:16:01,990 --> 00:16:04,630 vertical oven, the double, I think it's called it.

194 00:16:04,630 --> 00:16:05,770 I don't know what it's called.

195 00:16:05,770 --> 00:16:06,530 The double oven.

196 00:16:06,530 --> 00:16:07,750 I haven't bought a house yet.

197 00:16:07,750 --> 00:16:09,870 So still working on that one.

198 00:16:09,950 --> 00:16:15,030 I'll probably learn those things when, when they're become more important, but

199 00:16:15,030 --> 00:16:16,686 it's either like a,

200 00:16:17,582 --> 00:16:20,342 An oven that's not on the ground, let's just say that.

201 00:16:20,342 --> 00:16:26,182 So that could be a hidden oven where maybe you're at one of those nice houses and the

202 00:16:26,182 --> 00:16:31,522 kitchen cabinets and the oven look the same, so you can't really tell, same as

203 00:16:31,522 --> 00:16:33,182 the refrigerators.

204 00:16:34,182 --> 00:16:38,562 Or the oven's just not in the normal spot, it is on the simulation.

205 00:16:38,562 --> 00:16:42,844 And so maybe the robot knows what to do once it finds the oven.

206 00:16:42,990 --> 00:16:49,230 but it can't find the oven because it hasn't encountered anything of the sort in

207 00:16:49,350 --> 00:16:52,690 a real time simulation.

208 00:16:53,150 --> 00:17:00,890 So what you would do is you would hook up your mimic gin and you would train the

209 00:17:00,890 --> 00:17:04,080 robot how to do the task a couple of times in that area.

210 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:07,482 And then the robot would understand what to do and it would learn.

211 00:17:09,358 --> 00:17:13,238 which is crazy.

212 00:17:13,498 --> 00:17:18,138 And I am going to share my screen.

213 00:17:18,378 --> 00:17:19,918 Let's see here.

214 00:17:19,918 --> 00:17:27,048 If you're not watching on video, I am going to just lightly narrate.

215 00:17:27,048 --> 00:17:28,598 I'm not gonna do the whole video.

216 00:17:28,598 --> 00:17:30,330 I'm just going to.

217 00:17:33,134 --> 00:17:37,274 kind of show snippets of it, because it, I'm turn off the sound.

218 00:17:37,434 --> 00:17:44,014 Okay, so they've got the robot walking around and doing things with its hands.

219 00:17:44,014 --> 00:17:45,084 It's got like human -like hands.

220 00:17:45,084 --> 00:17:53,804 There's many robots, but they have this weird, odd video of thousands of robots

221 00:17:53,804 --> 00:17:59,664 walking around this blank, white background with stairs and stairs that go

222 00:17:59,664 --> 00:18:01,146 up and down and.

223 00:18:01,598 --> 00:18:08,438 and uneven surfaces and there's robots falling down and stumbling and it's very

224 00:18:08,438 --> 00:18:08,828 chaotic.

225 00:18:08,828 --> 00:18:14,822 It's like a city center with robots, but they're falling down and making mistakes.

226 00:18:17,198 --> 00:18:24,648 So in this example, they have this robot getting trained by human how to pick up

227 00:18:24,648 --> 00:18:29,628 cups and pour coffee and make, I think this looks like lemonade.

228 00:18:29,628 --> 00:18:38,618 This one's a demonstration of a human teaching a robot how to do a dance move

229 00:18:38,618 --> 00:18:40,458 via video.

230 00:18:40,458 --> 00:18:42,018 So this was out Omniverse.

231 00:18:42,018 --> 00:18:46,734 So they went and they submitted the video, the robot learned.

232 00:18:46,734 --> 00:18:55,224 via Omniverse and then they went back to reality and demonstrated that it

233 00:18:55,224 --> 00:18:56,280 understood.

234 00:18:57,998 --> 00:19:01,538 This one's about the high five example I was kind of talking about earlier.

235 00:19:01,538 --> 00:19:03,518 So show me some cool moves.

236 00:19:04,158 --> 00:19:05,658 And it does the dab.

237 00:19:05,658 --> 00:19:07,068 It's pretty sick.

238 00:19:09,166 --> 00:19:09,946 So that's it.

239 00:19:09,946 --> 00:19:11,726 So let me stop sharing.

240 00:19:12,086 --> 00:19:13,190 Let's see here.

241 00:19:15,342 --> 00:19:26,532 Okay, so what kind of jobs would Groot be able to kind of enable safer workplace or

242 00:19:26,532 --> 00:19:28,162 more efficient work?

243 00:19:29,002 --> 00:19:33,472 I think that there's some pieces of manufacturing that could remove the human

244 00:19:33,472 --> 00:19:42,358 element that is dangerous and there would still definitely need human input and.

245 00:19:43,946 --> 00:19:49,006 monitoring of situations and people to maintain the robots.

246 00:19:49,646 --> 00:19:53,094 But if you can remove the human...

247 00:19:54,542 --> 00:20:01,322 The human death factor of certain aspects of manufacturing, that would be great.

248 00:20:01,722 --> 00:20:04,522 Sorting of trash, like trash cleanup.

249 00:20:04,522 --> 00:20:09,602 Like sometimes you have some cities, they have people sorting from plastics to

250 00:20:09,602 --> 00:20:11,398 just...

251 00:20:13,388 --> 00:20:16,618 debris that can be incinerated.

252 00:20:16,998 --> 00:20:20,078 And so they obviously don't want to light plastic on fire.

253 00:20:20,778 --> 00:20:26,258 So they have people sorting them or hazardous debris cleanup.

254 00:20:27,218 --> 00:20:31,588 Space travel was something that was really interesting where the general consensus

255 00:20:31,588 --> 00:20:38,568 for space travel is if you're going to set up a base somewhere and have humans

256 00:20:38,568 --> 00:20:43,150 habitate, like say the moon or Mars, you would need to.

257 00:20:43,150 --> 00:20:50,650 deploy a fabricator and then this fabricator would need to build out what

258 00:20:50,650 --> 00:20:54,230 you would need to start a base.

259 00:20:54,230 --> 00:20:59,249 So like the fabricator would make the environment for you, it would make the

260 00:20:59,249 --> 00:21:03,880 solar panels, the generators, maybe the battery storage, and maybe not the battery

261 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,810 storage because it's a little bit more complicated, but it would need to be able

262 00:21:06,810 --> 00:21:09,290 to do majority of the stuff.

263 00:21:09,290 --> 00:21:12,422 And then someone's got to have to hook up.

264 00:21:13,070 --> 00:21:17,650 the items to the fab, not the fabricator, but put the items up together so they

265 00:21:17,650 --> 00:21:22,170 would have power and it'd be a little space before the humans came there.

266 00:21:22,190 --> 00:21:28,750 It would make sense for these little task robots to handle small things, but then

267 00:21:28,750 --> 00:21:36,810 obviously you need a robot that could be general purpose and handle many different

268 00:21:36,810 --> 00:21:39,150 aspects of setting up the base.

269 00:21:40,430 --> 00:21:41,774 And one of the things I think is,

270 00:21:41,774 --> 00:21:44,114 The biggest is elderly care.

271 00:21:44,654 --> 00:21:47,874 And I think that there might be some skepticism.

272 00:21:48,254 --> 00:21:53,054 Okay, you're thinking about these robots are probably like 200K, 500 ,000.

273 00:21:53,094 --> 00:22:01,334 The Tesla Optimus robot, according to Tesla is rumored, not really rumored, but

274 00:22:01,334 --> 00:22:07,374 like their estimations of the price is gonna be 20 to 25 ,000, which I think is

275 00:22:07,374 --> 00:22:08,926 very reasonable.

276 00:22:09,678 --> 00:22:13,458 given that it's cheaper than a car, the average price of a car.

277 00:22:14,298 --> 00:22:21,558 And this robot would be able to complete general tasks and help out at home.

278 00:22:21,558 --> 00:22:29,018 I don't know if it would be necessarily right out of the box, able to handle the

279 00:22:29,018 --> 00:22:34,098 requirements of elderly care, but I think that would be the long -term goal, like

280 00:22:34,098 --> 00:22:35,498 within 10 years.

281 00:22:37,966 --> 00:22:43,606 So they've got all this cool stuff and they had this cool demo and the same thing

282 00:22:43,606 --> 00:22:47,876 with figure a couple of weeks ago, but these are demos and they're not going to

283 00:22:47,876 --> 00:22:52,386 put out stuff that shines a bad light on the company.

284 00:22:52,386 --> 00:22:58,926 So these kind of are internal and not externally facing presentations.

285 00:22:59,746 --> 00:23:07,496 So I would have a little bit of skepticism, but I think that.

286 00:23:09,452 --> 00:23:12,662 Accompanies of maybe learn from Lordstown.

287 00:23:12,662 --> 00:23:14,102 I don't know.

288 00:23:14,102 --> 00:23:21,592 Lordstown, if you're not familiar, they had the truck incident where they demoed.

289 00:23:21,592 --> 00:23:29,342 They supposedly demoed a truck that was going down and driving on this highway.

290 00:23:29,342 --> 00:23:34,502 Sorry, I had a sneeze going down and driving on the highway.

291 00:23:34,502 --> 00:23:37,120 But actually, they just put it on a hill.

292 00:23:37,166 --> 00:23:43,096 and they had it go fast down a hill and then they videoed it on flat ground and

293 00:23:43,096 --> 00:23:44,626 they're like coming soon.

294 00:23:44,626 --> 00:23:50,256 But really it didn't have a functional product and people found out about it and

295 00:23:50,256 --> 00:23:55,526 it was a big deal and it basically bankrupted, bankrupt Lordstown.

296 00:23:56,386 --> 00:24:01,146 Anyways, so I hope that companies are being honest with what they're presenting

297 00:24:01,146 --> 00:24:04,838 and they are confident that if that...

298 00:24:04,942 --> 00:24:09,192 product was opened up to the public that day that the public could get the similar

299 00:24:09,192 --> 00:24:12,088 results to what they're getting during their demos.

300 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:15,850 Neuralink.

301 00:24:16,290 --> 00:24:21,310 And I really talked about the patient Nolan Arbosh.

302 00:24:22,090 --> 00:24:31,660 Nolan Arbosh was someone who became paralyzed from the chest down or the neck

303 00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:32,570 down.

304 00:24:33,170 --> 00:24:39,080 And he had to move in with his parents because they couldn't afford or they had

305 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,880 to move in his parents because he can't, you know, he can't function by himself

306 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:43,758 anymore.

307 00:24:43,758 --> 00:24:48,018 and they also can't afford to have a stay home nurse.

308 00:24:48,018 --> 00:24:55,098 So his parents take care of him and he has limited independence.

309 00:24:55,778 --> 00:25:05,658 And so he was selected recently to undergo the Neuralink connectivity surgery.

310 00:25:05,658 --> 00:25:12,850 And basically Neuralink will open up your skull and put a chip in your brain.

311 00:25:12,910 --> 00:25:18,390 and the chip has these receptors and there's a thousand of them and they'll

312 00:25:18,390 --> 00:25:25,574 monitor your neural activity on your brain and then they would...

313 00:25:27,438 --> 00:25:35,248 not they, but the chip would eventually understand what you're thinking and they

314 00:25:35,248 --> 00:25:36,938 call them neural spikes.

315 00:25:36,938 --> 00:25:41,738 And so like neural spikes means that the chip understands that the brain is trying

316 00:25:41,738 --> 00:25:43,138 to communicate something.

317 00:25:43,138 --> 00:25:49,948 And then these communications or attempts to communicate are sent via Bluetooth to

318 00:25:49,948 --> 00:25:52,354 the device that they're trying to communicate with.

319 00:25:54,126 --> 00:25:58,386 And it sounds kind of complicated, but really it's you're thinking about stuff

320 00:25:58,386 --> 00:26:05,186 and the chip understands that you're trying to send data and that data is sent

321 00:26:05,186 --> 00:26:08,038 via Bluetooth, the device you're trying to communicate with.

322 00:26:12,606 --> 00:26:16,585 Insane, crazy, crazy stuff.

323 00:26:16,585 --> 00:26:21,706 This is straight out of sci -fi, like controlling computers with your brain.

324 00:26:24,026 --> 00:26:30,206 And Nolan has only, he's only had the chip and being functional for a couple months,

325 00:26:30,206 --> 00:26:31,386 I think.

326 00:26:31,426 --> 00:26:33,254 And Neuralink demoed.

327 00:26:35,310 --> 00:26:43,910 demoed his experience at his house, at Nolan's house, and they played kind of

328 00:26:43,910 --> 00:26:51,170 chess and just communicated on their experience of how cool it is to be

329 00:26:51,170 --> 00:26:55,270 independent, how cool it is to be able to talk with his friends on the internet, how

330 00:26:55,270 --> 00:27:02,210 cool it is to be able to play video games whenever he wants and not have to rely on

331 00:27:02,210 --> 00:27:05,068 his mom or dad to help him play.

332 00:27:05,230 --> 00:27:11,430 And, you know, he understands that it's nice for, for them to spend time with him.

333 00:27:11,430 --> 00:27:17,100 But at the same time, he doesn't want them, he doesn't want to have to rely on

334 00:27:17,100 --> 00:27:19,270 other people more than he needs to.

335 00:27:19,270 --> 00:27:27,038 And so he felt that it was awesome and amazing to have.

336 00:27:28,534 --> 00:27:35,774 increased independence than what he's been experiencing in the last eight years or

337 00:27:35,774 --> 00:27:36,654 so.

338 00:27:37,114 --> 00:27:40,354 And one of the things that he likes to do is play chess.

339 00:27:40,394 --> 00:27:47,114 I don't know what his elo is, but I don't know if he said it, but he was playing and

340 00:27:47,114 --> 00:27:50,106 talking at the same time and he was doing okay.

341 00:27:51,694 --> 00:27:57,074 So he wasn't really focusing on the game and was playing and able to talk and it

342 00:27:57,074 --> 00:27:59,214 was pretty neat to watch.

343 00:27:59,214 --> 00:28:01,474 And I'll share the video in a second.

344 00:28:02,554 --> 00:28:10,644 And another thing that he did was or likes to do was play Age of Empires and Age of

345 00:28:10,644 --> 00:28:13,334 Empires is a 4X strategy game.

346 00:28:13,434 --> 00:28:18,694 So 4X strategy game means like basically like four dimensional.

347 00:28:18,874 --> 00:28:19,842 And so...

348 00:28:19,842 --> 00:28:25,302 Normally like a strategy game might have like you have to manage your economy and

349 00:28:25,302 --> 00:28:33,062 war, but for X games you have to manage like your economy, your war, your

350 00:28:33,062 --> 00:28:44,462 citizens, the world slash like diplomacy with other nations.

351 00:28:44,462 --> 00:28:48,654 And so it becomes very complicated and they're.

352 00:28:48,654 --> 00:28:54,174 quite challenging, intriguing simulations of strategy.

353 00:28:55,054 --> 00:29:06,324 But the caveat is with this complexity becomes a increased time allotment to

354 00:29:06,324 --> 00:29:07,554 complete a game.

355 00:29:07,834 --> 00:29:10,884 And so I've played a couple of 4X strategy games.

356 00:29:10,884 --> 00:29:16,374 My favorite one that I've interacted with and I've never beat the game, or I guess

357 00:29:16,374 --> 00:29:18,382 not beat the game, but won a match.

358 00:29:18,382 --> 00:29:21,642 was this game called, or is this game called Stellaris?

359 00:29:21,642 --> 00:29:30,152 And Stellaris is a 4X space game, and you're a nation, and you start out in the

360 00:29:30,152 --> 00:29:35,312 middle of the galaxy, and you kind of build your space empire, and it's crazy

361 00:29:35,312 --> 00:29:39,412 complicated, and in one game, you're not even close to finishing, and you could be

362 00:29:39,412 --> 00:29:40,696 40 hours in.

363 00:29:42,606 --> 00:29:47,226 So I just said all that stuff to put it in perspective is like one of Nolan's

364 00:29:47,226 --> 00:29:49,494 favorite activities was to play.

365 00:29:50,990 --> 00:29:57,650 age of empires and basically what he would have to do is have his mom or dad click

366 00:29:57,650 --> 00:30:01,970 everything on the computer to, you know, he would have to tell them, Oh, click,

367 00:30:01,970 --> 00:30:04,430 click here, do this, move this unit there.

368 00:30:04,430 --> 00:30:12,550 And so it, it wasn't a good experience for himself because they don't know the game

369 00:30:12,550 --> 00:30:16,310 and he can't move as fast as he wants to move.

370 00:30:16,310 --> 00:30:19,458 And he can't play online.

371 00:30:20,590 --> 00:30:28,890 with other people in a competitive game with all of these extra inputs that are

372 00:30:28,890 --> 00:30:32,050 required to move and make decisions.

373 00:30:32,370 --> 00:30:35,590 Because it's 4X, but it's actually, it's pretty fast -paced.

374 00:30:35,590 --> 00:30:41,150 So if you fall behind, you fall behind, and it's very difficult to recover.

375 00:30:41,970 --> 00:30:48,090 Well, basically, it was very difficult and impossible for him to play Age of Empires.

376 00:30:48,090 --> 00:30:50,196 And this...

377 00:30:50,196 --> 00:30:56,136 technology enabled Nolan to play and that's what he did with the first night he

378 00:30:56,136 --> 00:31:02,066 played Age of Empires, I think he said like until like 5 .30, 6 a .m.

379 00:31:02,066 --> 00:31:08,006 and he said he wanted to keep playing but his Neuralink died so he had to charge it

380 00:31:08,006 --> 00:31:09,756 and so then he went to bed.

381 00:31:12,110 --> 00:31:25,830 I just think that there are positives to technologies like Neuralink and it's great

382 00:31:25,830 --> 00:31:33,180 to see people getting results from all of this research they've been doing for so

383 00:31:33,180 --> 00:31:33,650 long.

384 00:31:33,650 --> 00:31:41,446 Neuralink's been around for a long time and they haven't made...

385 00:31:42,350 --> 00:31:43,650 much progress.

386 00:31:44,010 --> 00:31:47,930 They've been testing on animals, but they're really struggling for years and

387 00:31:47,930 --> 00:31:52,610 rightly so to be able to test this on humans.

388 00:31:53,130 --> 00:31:56,604 And I think that.

389 00:31:58,478 --> 00:32:06,308 this would be something that would change the lives of many people and give people a

390 00:32:06,308 --> 00:32:13,298 level of independence that they may have never had or used to have.

391 00:32:14,038 --> 00:32:21,278 And it just gives a different perspective and aspect to their lives that they didn't

392 00:32:21,278 --> 00:32:24,720 think was possible, which is amazing.

393 00:32:25,550 --> 00:32:29,910 And so I'm sharing this video, if you're watching the video of Nolan, he's playing

394 00:32:29,910 --> 00:32:35,240 chess and you can kind of see his mouse is kind of moving around and he's moving the

395 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,650 mouse with his mind, which is really cool.

396 00:32:38,650 --> 00:32:44,860 So he just moved the chess piece and he's talking about how he goes about.

397 00:32:46,670 --> 00:32:48,150 movement of the mouse.

398 00:32:48,150 --> 00:32:52,550 And so he started out and he would attempt to move it.

399 00:32:53,150 --> 00:32:58,350 And in his head he would say move, but he said that doesn't really work that well.

400 00:32:58,350 --> 00:33:02,970 You need to really think about the movement and kind of manifest where you

401 00:33:02,970 --> 00:33:05,630 want it to go and imagine what you want to do.

402 00:33:05,630 --> 00:33:06,750 And then that works.

403 00:33:06,750 --> 00:33:13,180 But if saying it, saying the command in his brain, it didn't, didn't compute the

404 00:33:13,180 --> 00:33:16,230 way that it's supposed to or how.

405 00:33:16,558 --> 00:33:25,878 he wanted it to, and so he said, basically manifesting the ideal result of what he

406 00:33:25,878 --> 00:33:31,328 wants, that would work with the computer versus him saying the command, which is

407 00:33:31,328 --> 00:33:32,638 pretty interesting.

408 00:33:33,138 --> 00:33:39,198 And took me a couple of takes to be able to explain that, because it's complicated

409 00:33:39,198 --> 00:33:42,624 to think about, because I don't know what it feels like.

410 00:33:45,806 --> 00:33:50,206 And then Nolan's just kind of explaining that, you know, he could play online and

411 00:33:50,206 --> 00:33:57,656 he can have this like new level of independence and have a good time.

412 00:33:57,656 --> 00:34:03,456 And he's smiling, laughing and just overall just thrilled to be a part of

413 00:34:03,456 --> 00:34:10,470 Neuralink and is extremely thankful that he was selected and just overjoyed.

414 00:34:12,462 --> 00:34:17,992 That being said, there are some ethical concerns with Neuralink and the results of

415 00:34:17,992 --> 00:34:27,262 their test subjects on animals were, let's say, less than desirable, I would say.

416 00:34:27,262 --> 00:34:35,366 Quite a few of the test subjects died and some of the animals were just...

417 00:34:36,846 --> 00:34:39,746 no longer what they used to be.

418 00:34:39,966 --> 00:34:46,766 I there are definitely some consequences to trying to innovate quickly.

419 00:34:47,406 --> 00:34:53,806 And people have been bringing that up as like a, like they're very upset about it.

420 00:34:53,806 --> 00:34:56,246 And rightly so.

421 00:34:56,866 --> 00:35:02,784 That being said, long -term, Neuralink envisions,

422 00:35:02,990 --> 00:35:08,520 being able to not only connect people to computers, they want to connect people to

423 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,610 robots, the Tesla Optimus robot.

424 00:35:10,610 --> 00:35:15,230 They want people with Neuralink to be able to control the Tesla Optimus robot.

425 00:35:15,550 --> 00:35:21,720 They also envision Neuralink being able to fix people that, I wouldn't say fix

426 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:26,982 people, but be able to allow individuals to...

427 00:35:29,644 --> 00:35:33,514 walk again, or walk.

428 00:35:33,834 --> 00:35:40,334 And the process is a little fuzzy in my head about it.

429 00:35:40,334 --> 00:35:47,938 But basically, they have the neurolink that's in your brain and the

430 00:35:49,422 --> 00:35:53,652 pathways to certain body parts aren't functioning the way that they normally

431 00:35:53,652 --> 00:35:54,682 should.

432 00:35:54,782 --> 00:36:01,462 And the way around that is to put a device in your spine.

433 00:36:01,722 --> 00:36:08,662 And this would basically make this like computer brain interface.

434 00:36:09,242 --> 00:36:17,382 And this would allow the user to send commands with their brain, the Neuralink

435 00:36:17,382 --> 00:36:18,544 chip.

436 00:36:20,174 --> 00:36:24,334 decodes the brain signals into plain movements.

437 00:36:24,634 --> 00:36:37,364 And then it sends the message down to the microelectrodes that are connected to the

438 00:36:37,364 --> 00:36:44,894 spinal cord with what they're calling a digital bridge to stimulate movement.

439 00:36:44,994 --> 00:36:49,266 And then the digital bridge sends

440 00:36:50,094 --> 00:37:00,364 sends the movement signals to the limbs that are damaged and then it kind of

441 00:37:00,364 --> 00:37:04,354 bypasses the original nervous system.

442 00:37:05,214 --> 00:37:13,584 So basically what Neuralink wants to do is create an artificial neural system using

443 00:37:13,584 --> 00:37:19,876 your brain as the key compute.

444 00:37:20,206 --> 00:37:30,296 like the computer, the CPU, like the CPU making all the commands and then the chip

445 00:37:30,296 --> 00:37:33,978 decodes the commands, then the codes are sent to.

446 00:37:35,758 --> 00:37:40,398 the codes are, the commands and slash codes are sent to the spine and the spine

447 00:37:40,398 --> 00:37:46,438 has the digital bridge and the digital bridge sends commands to the damaged

448 00:37:46,998 --> 00:37:48,258 limbs.

449 00:37:48,258 --> 00:37:50,598 Other than that, I don't know how they connect.

450 00:37:50,598 --> 00:37:53,578 I don't know how they connect the digital bridge to the limbs.

451 00:37:53,578 --> 00:37:58,978 I'm not sure how that all works, but that's, that's what I could gather, which

452 00:37:58,978 --> 00:38:04,654 is pretty nuts and insane and something that would be amazing for so many people.

453 00:38:05,486 --> 00:38:08,058 and overall very exciting.

454 00:38:09,614 --> 00:38:17,834 I think the last thing is tech is very close to just outpacing society.

455 00:38:18,514 --> 00:38:28,154 And I think that we haven't had a time, and I also understand or envision that

456 00:38:28,154 --> 00:38:36,454 this time in our current present day is the kind of infection point for AI and

457 00:38:36,494 --> 00:38:39,444 technology advancements that we've never seen before.

458 00:38:40,238 --> 00:38:44,498 and the pace that we're improving is just incredible.

459 00:38:45,438 --> 00:38:54,948 That being said, we are moving rapidly and I don't think that society has the correct

460 00:38:54,948 --> 00:39:00,442 or kind of put in place the right guide rails of.

461 00:39:02,446 --> 00:39:08,294 these things where we're just moving at just this incredible rate.

462 00:39:09,742 --> 00:39:13,392 And things, you know, bad things can happen and we're not, we're not

463 00:39:13,392 --> 00:39:17,402 necessarily, how do I put this?

464 00:39:17,742 --> 00:39:21,842 When electricity came about, right?

465 00:39:21,842 --> 00:39:27,722 People had a job where every night they would go and they would light the lights

466 00:39:27,722 --> 00:39:29,382 up that night.

467 00:39:29,382 --> 00:39:34,312 So they had street lights, but really the street lights were someone going by and

468 00:39:34,312 --> 00:39:35,662 lighting each light.

469 00:39:35,762 --> 00:39:38,652 So there wouldn't be dark on the street.

470 00:39:39,118 --> 00:39:43,678 And then I think in the morning they would go around and put the lights out.

471 00:39:44,538 --> 00:39:52,338 And electricity obviously replaced their job, but electricity didn't just turn on

472 00:39:52,338 --> 00:39:53,918 everywhere all at once.

473 00:39:53,918 --> 00:39:59,818 It was a slower process where they maybe do a section of the city at a time and

474 00:39:59,818 --> 00:40:05,668 then the workers could re -educate and they could find another job, maybe learn

475 00:40:05,668 --> 00:40:07,430 how to work on.

476 00:40:07,598 --> 00:40:13,938 work on the electricity systems or build the light poles that did the wiring.

477 00:40:14,438 --> 00:40:23,458 But with this AI stuff, it's kind of the snap of your finger and it's just there.

478 00:40:23,458 --> 00:40:30,468 There is no slow transition to where you've got 10 years or you've got five or

479 00:40:30,468 --> 00:40:31,378 three.

480 00:40:31,378 --> 00:40:35,950 It's kind of like once AI is ready to go and it's general and

481 00:40:35,950 --> 00:40:39,130 They've built these foundational models that I'm talking about.

482 00:40:39,130 --> 00:40:42,590 Like it's kind of just, it is what it is.

483 00:40:42,670 --> 00:40:48,130 And the robots, you know, I mentioned earlier that they could use them for

484 00:40:48,130 --> 00:40:53,910 elderly care and all these great things, but also at the same time, they're pretty

485 00:40:53,910 --> 00:41:00,600 inexpensive in the grand scheme of things like 20 K, like you could buy five robots

486 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,896 and potentially replace five people.

487 00:41:04,750 --> 00:41:08,460 I don't necessarily think that you would be doing like a technical job.

488 00:41:08,460 --> 00:41:12,500 Like they're not going to be coding at a desk or something like that, but they're

489 00:41:12,500 --> 00:41:16,750 definitely going to take over some things for sure.

490 00:41:16,750 --> 00:41:20,610 And it's not going to be a.

491 00:41:21,090 --> 00:41:25,190 And what I think is like a slow transition, I think once the robots are

492 00:41:25,190 --> 00:41:31,150 ready, large companies will book big orders and then once they get to mass

493 00:41:31,150 --> 00:41:32,282 producing them.

494 00:41:33,486 --> 00:41:35,266 It is what it is.

495 00:41:35,646 --> 00:41:48,496 So I am intrigued, but a little unsettled and I am really excited about the

496 00:41:48,496 --> 00:41:53,176 opportunity to adapt along with the robots, right?

497 00:41:53,176 --> 00:41:56,826 So we're not, it's not about replacing us.

498 00:41:56,826 --> 00:42:01,646 It's about how we adapt alongside them and

499 00:42:01,646 --> 00:42:04,326 reap the benefits of our relationship.

500 00:42:04,326 --> 00:42:08,526 I don't have any new comments this week.

501 00:42:08,746 --> 00:42:17,975 Maybe you're saving the comments for next week, but I am excited to keep moving

502 00:42:17,975 --> 00:42:19,046 forward.

503 00:42:19,046 --> 00:42:23,986 Next week we'll be discussing a book, a book review.

504 00:42:23,986 --> 00:42:31,276 I got meditations by Mark Hayes that we'll be discussing and I'll share my thoughts.

505 00:42:31,278 --> 00:42:36,418 and hopefully I'll get to entrepreneurship stuff soon.

506 00:42:36,558 --> 00:42:38,854 I was sick for...

507 00:42:40,910 --> 00:42:42,190 three months.

508 00:42:42,210 --> 00:42:48,250 So I was having a tough time doing even doing these podcasts slash getting my work

509 00:42:48,250 --> 00:42:53,470 done at work and having to work late and some were at a busy time this year.

510 00:42:53,610 --> 00:42:59,190 And then I had to do these podcasts and I sometimes I was just in such bad shape.

511 00:42:59,190 --> 00:43:05,970 I was having a difficult time mentally getting through these podcasts episodes

512 00:43:05,970 --> 00:43:10,300 and it was difficult to to talk without coughing constantly and

513 00:43:10,574 --> 00:43:17,034 and it was difficult to express myself because I was in constant pain.

514 00:43:17,034 --> 00:43:24,034 So I am happy to say I have been sick free for two weeks.

515 00:43:24,034 --> 00:43:28,124 So it's huge because I've been sick since January, which is something that's not

516 00:43:28,124 --> 00:43:29,194 normal for me.

517 00:43:29,194 --> 00:43:31,334 Typically don't get sick at all.

518 00:43:31,714 --> 00:43:35,894 But that being said, I hope that I'll either do the book review or I'll talk

519 00:43:35,894 --> 00:43:38,062 about by vision in a little bit more detail.

520 00:43:38,062 --> 00:43:41,792 because I keep talking about in the intro discussing entrepreneurship, industry

521 00:43:41,792 --> 00:43:43,852 trends and the occasional book review.

522 00:43:43,852 --> 00:43:48,642 And it seems like all I'm doing is industry trends and our industry news

523 00:43:48,642 --> 00:43:51,342 slash trends and book reviews.

524 00:43:51,782 --> 00:43:57,222 So I would like to get some entrepreneurial information in there and

525 00:43:57,222 --> 00:44:02,592 kind of talk about what I've been working on, but we will see how this week pans

526 00:44:02,592 --> 00:44:03,662 out.

527 00:44:04,022 --> 00:44:04,602 All right.

528 00:44:04,602 --> 00:44:05,282 See everyone.

529 00:44:05,282 --> 00:44:06,700 Appreciate your time.

530 00:44:06,766 --> 00:44:09,546 and I'll talk to you next week, bye.

SourcesFollow the source trail.

E010 Sources

The transcript preserves Dalton's 2024 interpretation. NVIDIA establishes what it announced. ClinicalTrials.gov and FDA guidance establish the clinical and regulatory boundary. Neuralink's updates provide sponsor-reported participant and device information.

Source ledger

SourceClassSupportsBoundary
[[E10 - Transcript - ep10-the-robot-revolution-from-neuralink-to-nvidias-groot (SRT only 1)]]Preserved primary sourceEpisode wording, analogies, reactions, examples, and timestampsRaw body is immutable. Product, medical, price, labor, and historical claims require independent support.
Spotify episodeFirst-party publication recordPublic episode identity and listening URLPlatform metadata can change.
NVIDIA Project GR00T announcementVendor primary sourceMarch 18, 2024 announcement, GR00T expansion, intended capabilities, Isaac Lab, and OSMOAnnounced designs and vendor descriptions do not establish independent performance or deployment readiness.
NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N1 announcementVendor primary sourceMarch 18, 2025 release of an open, customizable GR00T model and related simulation toolsPerformance and market statements are vendor claims.
NVIDIA GR00T N1.6 announcementVendor primary sourceJanuary 2026 N1.6 release, Isaac Lab-Arena, OSMO, and vendor-described ecosystem useAvailability and performance statements remain vendor claims.
Official Isaac GR00T repositoryVendor code and release recordN1.7 early-access state, weights, reference code, lifecycle language, and technical routesEarly access is not general availability or deployment validation.
ClinicalTrials.gov PRIME recordFederal trial registryStudy identity, sponsor, design, eligibility, outcomes, recruiting status, and lack of posted resultsRegistry information is supplied by the sponsor and does not itself establish a favorable outcome.
FDA implanted BCI guidanceFederal regulatory guidanceNonclinical and clinical considerations for investigational implanted BCIsGeneral guidance does not determine the safety, effectiveness, or approval status of a specific device.
FDA IDE overviewFederal regulatory guidanceMeaning of an IDE and applicable research controlsAn IDE permits qualifying investigation and is not marketing approval.
Neuralink PRIME recruitment announcementSponsor primary sourceInvestigational device exemption, intended study purpose, N1 and R1 roles, initial cursor-control goalSponsor announcement, not independent clinical evidence or marketing approval.
Neuralink first-participant updateSponsor primary sourceNoland Arbaugh's reported use, cursor control, device hours, thread retraction, and sponsor responseSingle-participant sponsor report. Neuralink states that benefit is not guaranteed.
Neuralink second-participant updateSponsor primary sourceSecond participant experience and sponsor-described thread-retraction mitigationsSponsor report, not posted study results or independent clinical evidence.
Neuralink device-control trialsSponsor current trial routeCurrent PRIME and CONVOY descriptions and investigational languageCurrent sponsor page; confirm against each registry and regulator.
HHS informed-consent guidanceFederal research-protection guidanceDisclosure, understanding, voluntariness, and continuing consentGeneral guidance does not determine compliance or adequacy in a specific study.
NIST AI Risk Management FrameworkFederal voluntary frameworkContinuing governance, mapping, measurement, and managementNon-sector-specific and not a clinical, device, or robot-safety approval.
OSHA robotics overviewFederal workplace-safety resourceNon-routine robotics hazards and routes to applicable requirementsIndustrial workplace context does not cover every clinical, service, or consumer robot.

Corrections and boundaries

The participant is Noland Arbaugh, not Nolan Arbosh. The canonical records use the spelling published by Neuralink.

The FDA did not approve the N1 Implant for ordinary medical use. The PRIME study proceeded under an investigational device exemption. The device is being studied, and the current trial registry lists PRIME as recruiting with estimated enrollment of 15 and no posted results.

Project GR00T was announced in March 2024 as a development initiative for humanoid robot foundation models and the surrounding Isaac toolchain. NVIDIA later released the N1 family. The official repository identifies N1.7 as early access as of July 28, 2026. None of those records establishes that a general-purpose household, care, manufacturing, or space robot is ready for an unbounded deployment.

The transcript's descriptions of a $20,000 to $25,000 humanoid robot, near-term job replacement, elder care, walking again, robot control, and an immediate social transition are speculative. They are not promoted as forecasts or product claims.

The animal-welfare discussion is retained in the raw transcript but not expanded in the canonical article because this package did not establish an adequate primary record for the specific allegations.

Editorial decisions

The article centers the most durable shared question: what evidence is required after a compelling demonstration? It treats Noland Arbaugh's account as meaningful lived experience without generalizing it into a clinical outcome.

Detailed technical explanations from the recording were simplified where they confused simulation, language models, neural decoding, stimulation, or future research concepts. The canonical article is educational context, not medical, clinical, engineering, procurement, investment, employment, or accessibility advice.

Publication-day refresh

Recheck the ClinicalTrials.gov record, registry history, posted results, FDA device and IDE records, Neuralink trial pages, sponsor updates, NVIDIA developer page, repository release state, license, model cards, benchmarks, supported hardware, and every public route immediately before publication.

The HHS informed-consent page returned HTTP 403 to the automated validation client but was accessible and content-verified through the browser research surface on July 28, 2026. The other sixteen distinct public routes used by the Public Drafts returned HTTP 200 through direct GET checking.

The Robot Revolution: Nvidia's GROOT, Neuralink Breakthroughs & Our C