GTC 2020 transitions to online conference due to coronavirus – Nvidia teases cryptic video

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Coronavirus strikes again! Now it looks like Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) has shifted to digital after growing concerns over the virus. The conference will go ahead as planned but will be live streamed online instead, saving our coughs and sneezes for the comfort of our own homes, rather than a room full of people doing the same thing on our shoulders.

“GTC Digital delivers all the great training, research, insights, and direct access to the brilliant minds you’ve come to expect from the GPU Technology Conference—now online.”

This switching-to-digital idea seems to be garnering a lot of attention, as GDC also decided to stream a lot of the talks that were originally scheduled for next week. It brings up questions of whether stage announcements are really warranted anymore, we live in a world (I really tried not to say ‘Society’ there) where almost everything can be digitalised (digitised?) and consumed online rather than flying hundreds of miles to hear some people talk and then fly hundreds of miles back. E3 2020 might go down this route, but we’ll wait and see what they officially say.

“Join our live webinars, training, and Connect with the Experts sessions starting Wednesday, March 25. The schedule will be released soon. You can also choose from a library of talks, panels, research posters, and demos that you can view on your own schedule, at your own pace. New on-demand content will be announced every Thursday starting March 26.”

On a side note, many are excited for Nvidia’s GTC 2020 – now dubbed GTC Digital – as anticipation for their next generation of GPU’s grows larger. Will we see the Ampere series announced? Only time will tell, but what’s more interesting is a cryptic teaser they posted on Twitter earlier today:

19.03.2020 pic.twitter.com/FNzFF1UkhA

— NVIDIA ANZ (@NvidiaANZ) March 11, 2020

First of all, the date does not line up with GTC Digital which starts on March 25th, so whatever Nvidia is teasing here will be announced almost a week ahead. What could they be teasing? Well, it obviously has something to do with eyes… so, vision, right? Many have taken this to mean that Nvidia will be coming out with their own VR headset, whilst others suggested it’s a new form of eye-tracking. One particularly interesting theory is that it has something to do with AI and Computer Vision, or even Machine Learning, and considering that GTC is quite heavily focused on artificial intelligence, this wouldn’t be too far-fetched.

Whatever it is we’re probably just overthinking it, Nvidia might just want us to ‘keep our eyes open’ for some sort of announcement on March 19th… An announcement of Ampere maybe?

What do you think the message means? Is Nvidia coming out with a new VR headset? Or what about eye tracking or computer vision? Or maybe it’s just simpler than that? Let us know your theories!