AI, Spatial Intelligence, and 3D Content Creation With Sanja Fidler of NVIDIA - Ep. 269

Hello, and welcome to the NVIDIA AI podcast. I'm your host, Noah Kravitz. This past August, three of NVIDIA's research leaders gave a special address at SIGGRAPH, the annual international computer graphics and interactive techniques conference that's been running since 1974. One of those people is here with us today. Sonya Fiddler is VP of AI research at NVIDIA, where she leads the NVIDIA Spatial Intelligence Lab in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sonya is here to tell us about the lab, to talk about the research she's most excited about right now, including what was presented at SIGGRAPH, and to share a little bit about her own journey through the worlds of research and artificial intelligence. So without further ado, let's get to it. Sonya Fidler, welcome, and thanks for joining the AI podcast. Hi, Noah, and hi, audience. I'm very excited to be on this AI podcast. We are very excited to have you. Thanks for taking the time. There's a lot going on, obviously, and congratulations on the special address and everything else at SIGGRAPH. So we wanted to start with a little bit about your own journey. You followed your passion for computer vision and artificial intelligence across Europe and into North America. Can you tell us a little bit about what first got you interested in the field and how your journey took you to Toronto? So, maybe I started with with my youth, and there were actually three important break points, that that led led me to where I am. And the first one actually starts with my dad. So my dad would sit on a chair next to my sister and me and tell us bedtime stories. And surprisingly, she was very good at it. He was a scientist, and so he would tell us stories about scientists. For example, he would tell us about Nikola Tesla, who was born in Croatia, and my mom was also born in Croatia. I was born in Slovenia. And was this in Slovenia? Where did you grow? I grew up in Slovenia. So my dad were in Slovenia. My dad was was my my mom was born in Croatia. My my dad was born in Slovenia, and I was born in Slovenia. Okay. So he was telling us stories about, you know, how at the young age, Nikola jumped from the roof from of their house holding an open umbrella thinking he would fly. You know? And every night, there will be a new episode about his inventions that led to, you know, creation of radio, alternating current. Obviously, we didn't understand what he made it sounds fun. And the competition with Thomas Edison, right, it will be almost like a Netflix series. And for a challenge, it was very exciting. So I just That's amazing. Couldn't have to wait to hear more to the next, next day. So kinda like my childhood with heroes were not, you know, movie stars or music stars. They were scientists. Awesome. …