Jensen Huang

Founder and CEO of NVIDIA. On accelerated computing, AI, and building through pain and suffering.

7 topics · 101 distinct points

AI & accelerated computing

2023–2026 · changed view

“So in the early 90s, when we first started the company, we observed that in a software program inside it, there are just a few lines of code. Maybe 10% of the code does 99% of the processing. And that 99% of the processing could be done in parallel. However, the other 90% of the code has to be done sequentially. It turns out that the proper computer, the perfect computer, is one that could do sequential processing and parallel processing, not just one or the other. That was the big observation. And we set out to build a company to solve computer problems that normal computers can't. And that's really the beginning of Nvidia.”

AI & the future of work

2023–2026 · changed view

“And so the question is the what I'm leading up to is ultimately what is the purpose? What is the purpose of the lawyer? And has the purpose changed? What is the purpose? You know, one of the examples that I gave is that I would give is for example if my car became self-driving will all chauffeers be out of jobs? The answer probably is not because for some per for some chauffeers they for some people who are driving you they could be protectors some people they're part of the experience part of the service so when you get there they you know they could take care of things for you and so for a lot of different reasons not all chauffeers would lose their jobs some chauffeers would lose their jobs and many chauffeers would change their jobs and the type of applications of autonomous vehicles will probably increase you know the usage of the technology within find new homes and so I think you have to go back to what is the purpose of a job you know like for example if AI comes along I actually don't believe I'm going to lose my job because my purpose isn't to I have to look at a lot of documents I study a lot of emails I look at a bunch of diagrams you know the question is what is the job and the purpose of somebody probably hasn't changed a lawyer for example help people that probably hasn't changed studying legal documents generating documents it's part of the job not the job.”

Building NVIDIA

2023–2026 · changed view

“When Nvidia started in 1993, we were trying to create this new computing approach. The question is what's the killer app? And the problem we wanted to the company wanted to create a new type of computing pro a computing architecture a computing a new type of computer that can solve problems that normal computers can't solve. Well, the applications that existed in the industry in 1993 are applications that normal computers can solve because if the normal computers can't solve them, why would the application exist? And so, we had a mission statement for a company that has no chance of success.”

AI safety & regulation

2023–2026 · changed view

“I think I know what consciousness is the sense of experience the ability to know self versus the ability to be able to reflect know our own self the sense of ego I think all of all of those human experiences probably is what consciousness is but why it exists versus the concept of knowledge and intelligence which is what AI is defined by today it has knowledge it has intelligence artificial intelligence we don't call it artificial consciousness artificial intelligence the ability to perceive believe, recognize, understand, plan, perform tasks. Those things are foundations of intelligence to know things, knowledge. I don't, it's clearly different than consciousness.”

Leadership & management

2023–2026

“That moment in time for our company gave us so much confidence. And the reason for that is you can succeed in doing something, inventing a future, even if you were not informed about it at all. And it's kind of my attitude about everything now. When somebody tells me about something and I've never heard of it before, or if I've heard of it, don't understand how it works at all, my first thought is always, how hard can it be? And it's probably just a textbook away. You're probably one arXiv paper away from figuring this out. And so I spent a lot of time reading arXiv papers, and it's true.”

Resilience & suffering

2023–2026

“There's long periods of suffering and loneliness and uncertainty and fear and embarrassment and humiliation. all of the feelings that we most not love that creating something from the ground up and Elon will tell you something similar very difficult to invent something new.”

AI, geopolitics & China

2025–2026

“The United Kingdom was where the industrial revolution was, if you will, invented when they realized that they can turn steam and such into energy into electricity. All of that was invented largely in Europe and the United States capitalized on it. We were the ones that learned from it. We industrialized it. We diffused it faster than anybody in Europe. They were all stuck in discussions about policy and jobs and disruptions. Meanwhile, the United States was forming. We just took the technology and ran with it. And so I think we were always in a bit of a technology race. World War II was a technology race. Manhattan Project was a technology race. We've been in the technology race ever since during the Cold War. I think we're still in a technology race. It is probably the single most important race. It is the technology is it gives you superpowers. you know whether it's information superpowers or energy superpowers or military superpowers is all founded in technology and so technology leadership is really important.”