Nvidia’s Huang says AI will affect everybody’s jobs

In a recent interview, Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, cautioned that while AI could drive strong gains in workplace output, it also risks costing jobs if businesses fail to keep innovating.

“If the world runs out of ideas, then productivity gains translate to job loss,” Huang told Fareed Zakaria from CNN, responding to Dario Amodei’s warnings about AI-driven unemployment.

Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO, warned in June that AI might trigger a steep rise in joblessness soon. According to him, automation could wipe out one-half of white-collar entry level roles and push unemployment to roughly 20 percent over the coming 5 years.

Huang argued that when companies develop new concepts, they can both boost output and create roles. But without fresh ambitions, he added, “productivity drives down,” which could mean fewer positions.

He further added that the most fundamental aspect is having new ideas in society. Huang stressed the fact that as long as society has new ideas, it will grow and be productive. 

Investment in AI has surged, sparking a technology boom and stoking concerns about job losses. Some 41 percent of CEOs expect AI to cut staff numbers at several thousand firms in the coming 5 years, based on a survey from 2024 by Adecco.

A January 2024 report from the World Economic Forum found that 41 percent of companies are planning to shrink their hiring by the year 2030 due to automation provided by AI.

AI will make some jobs obsolete while creating new jobs, Huang says

Huang added that AI will eventually affect everyone’s jobs. Some of these jobs may become completely obsolete, while new jobs will form. He added that he hopes that increased productivity from AI will lift industries.

Nvidia reached a market value of $4 trillion and is at the forefront of the AI wave. It’s chips power data centres used by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to run cloud operations and AI models.

Defending AI’s progress, Huang noted that in the past 300 years, and through the computer age, both output and employment have risen. He said new technology helps foster “an abundance of ideas” and fresh ways of building better futures.

AI is set to change how tasks are accomplished. Over half of major U.S. firms are planning to bring automation to their tasks like supplier payments and invoice processing, based on a Duke University survey.

Huang admitted that AI has even altered his own role, but he still has his job. Many companies already use tools such as ChatGPT and other chatbots to accomplish tasks like writing job adverts, press statements, and marketing plans.