Nvidia is releasing what it’s calling an AI foundation model for humanoid robotics.
Announced at GTC 2025 in San Jose, the model, dubbed Groot N1, is a “generalist” model, trained on both synthetic and real data. Nvidia claims that Groot N1 features a “dual system architecture” for “thinking fast and slow,” inspired by human cognitive processes.
Groot N1 is an evolution of Nvidia’s Project Groot, which the company launched at its GTC conference last year. Project Groot was geared toward on industrial use cases, but Groot N1 broadens the focus to humanoid robots in a range of different form factors.
Groot N1’s slow thinking system lets a robot perceive and reason about its environment and instructions, and then plan the right actions to take, according to Nvidia. As for the fast thinking system, it translates the aforementioned plan into robotic actions, including actions that involve manipulating objects over multiple steps.
Groot N1 is available in open source. Alongside the model, Nvidia is releasing simulation frameworks and blueprints for generating synthetic training data.
“The age of generalist robotics is here,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement.
Humanoid robots have attracted a lot of publicity in recent years. Companies like X1 and Figure are attempting to create general-purpose robots that move more or less like humans. The challenges are formidable, but these companies claim that technology has reached the point where mass-produced humanoid robotic systems are a realistic near-term goal.
The many disappointments in recent robotics history suggest that will be easier said than achieved.