Cory Gunther
Everything you see in the image above is fake. The kitchen, salt shakers, stovetop, and even NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang himself. Back in April, the CEO stood in his kitchen and delivered a press conference remotely, just as he’s done three times this past year, except he didn’t. Nothing is as it seems.
This week, NVIDIA confirmed that the scene was a fake, a digitally cloned and computer-generated version of the CEO and his kitchen. You can call it a deepfake, CGI, whatever, but it’s pretty neat to see on video.
The company built aspects of the keynote event using Omniverse tools for creating 3D virtual worlds. That same tool was a huge part of the announcement during the event. There’s no better way to show off how powerful those tools can be than to pull off a stunt like this. Take a peek yourself and see if you can tell it’s fake.
NVIDIA switched to “virtual” press conferences over the past year, like just about every other major company, due to the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve seen Jensen Huang stand in that kitchen several times while discussing or announcing new technology. Only this time, he really didn’t. The cake is a lie!
Several teams and engineers throughout NVIDIA worked together to take full face, body, and kitchen scans, then created an entire 3D model. Next, they used tools to program that 3D model to match CEO Huang’s gestures, facial expressions, and even how he leans forward on the table. And finally, they added some AI magic to make his clone more realistic. It’s pretty fascinating, really.
No one knew part of the April event was a digital double. Well, no one except NVIDIA. The keynote has nearly 2 million views on YouTube, and NVIDIA said the keynote received nearly 20 million views in total. I wonder how many of those viewers caught on to the trick.
