Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s latest statement has made the rounds and ignited a much-needed discussion around what kids today should learn.
Going contrary to the advice parroted to parents all over the world, Huang thinks kids shouldn’t learn to code anymore. Even more, he said that there is no need for humans to learn programming, as AI can do that.
At the recent World Government Summit in Dubai, Huang was asked about the future of society when it comes to education, specifically on what people should learn and focus on.
His response? As summed up by Tom’s Hardware, Huang basically said we should educate children on manufacturing, biology or farming, as AI frees people from the “chore” of programming.
You can read statement and the context below:
“You probably recall over the course of the last 10 years, 15 years, almost everybody who sits on a stage like this would tell you it is vital that your children learn computer science, everybody should learn how to program, and in fact it’s almost exactly the opposite. It is our job to create computing technology such that nobody has to program and that the programming language, it’s human, everybody in the world is now a programmer. This is the miracle, this is the miracle of artificial intelligence. For the very first time, we have closed the gap, the technology divide has been completely closed and it’s the reason why so many people can engage artificial intelligence. It is the reason why every single government, every single industrial conference, every single company is talking about artificial intelligence today. Because for the very first time you can imagine everybody in your company being a technologist.
And so, this is a tremendous time for all of you to realize that the technology divide has been closed. Or another way to say it, the technology leadership of other countries has now been reset.
The countries, the people that understand how to solve a domain problem in digital biology, or in education of young people, or in manufacturing or in farming, those people who understand domain expertise now can utilize technology that is readily available to you.
You now have a computer that will do what you tell it to do to help automate your work, to amplify your productivity, to make you more efficient. And so, I think that this is just a tremendous time. The impact of course is great and your imperative to activate and take advantage of the technology is absolutely immediate. And also to realize that to engage AI is a lot easier now than at any time in the history of computing.
It is vital that we upskill everyone and the upskilling process, I believe, will be delightful, surprising, to realize that this computer can perform all these things that you’re instructing it to do and doing it so easily.”
His statement isn’t unexpected, considering NVidia is one of the companies expected to earn the most from the widespread adoption of AI. Just a few days ago, a report came out saying that the company’s revenue was boosted by as much as 265% thanks to AI.
“The lion’s share of Nvidia’s financial triumph is attributed to the explosive growth of its AI-driven initiatives within the Data Center platform, which alone generated $18.4 billion (€17.04 billion), witnessing a 27% increase from the third quarter and an astonishing 409% from the preceding year,” wrote Euro News. In this context, no wonder Huang is so optimistic about AI!
Still, when it comes to educating children, perhaps tech leaders aren’t the people to ask, considering the Silicon Valley mantra of “move fast and break things”.
What do you think about Huang’s advice?
Main image by Nvidia via Flickr
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