Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wants other AI leaders to quit the doomerism.
“The fact that [AI] is going to be the end of humanity—it’s complete nonsense,” Huang told Axios in an interview published Thursday. “The fact that this is going to destroy half of the American jobs is complete nonsense.”
In the interview, Huang said that some of his fellow tech CEOs are scaring the masses by emphasizing AI’s potential catastrophic risks. He emphasized that scaring away workers and companies from using AI is harmful.
“The most important thing that we have to do with AI is not to scare our industries, not to scare our society into not using AI,” Huang said. “AI is not going to destroy all of our jobs.”
“We just all have to be thoughtful and careful,” he added. “You’re scaring people and wrongly.”
Huang also urged policymakers to consult with more than “one or two” CEOs and avoid restricting the tech based on hypothetical scenarios.
“I think that we ought to be much more enthusiastic about it, help the United States realize that the only way we get left behind, the only way we get left behind is if we don’t apply the technology,” he said.
“Don’t create a story that is made up,” he added. “It is made up that there’s going to be a singularity. It’s made up that somehow we’re living in a simulation. These are all made ups. I think it’s a fun story. I don’t mind listening to it. And I even enjoy the narrative when it’s told by many of those leaders who are my friends.”
While Huang didn’t call out specific leaders or companies, one of the most outspoken figures about AI risks is Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Last year, Amodei said AI could wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs. While OpenAI’s Sam Altman previously warned that AI would make jobs disappear, he recently said he was incorrect about his timeline and prediction.
But Huang has, in the past, brushed aside AI as a “lazy” excuse for layoffs. And like him, other CEOs are more optimistic about the future of AI and work. Jeff Bezos, for example, has been vocal about his belief that AI will result in the opposite of job loss, instead causing a shortage of human labor. In May, he said that AI doomers were “dead wrong,” adding that the tech would “elevate” young workers and let people get work done at “a higher level.”
Still, there is increasing pessimism among the public about AI and the future of work. One recent Reuters/Ipsos survey found that 53% of its 4,531 respondents were worried that they—or someone in their household—would lose their job due to AI.
Huang is still adamant that AI will actually increase jobs.
“While we’re automating all of these different tasks, it’s actually increasing the amount of jobs that the world needs,” Huang said.