Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang was allegedly recorded telling his people to use more AI while assuring them that they won’t get replaced by the tool. The head of the AI chip giant is reported to have said this during an all-hands meeting after its record-breaking quarter, which was leaked to Business Insider. The statements were reportedly made during the same meeting where he complained about the drop in Nvidia’s stock price despite performing absolutely well, with Huang saying that the market did not appreciate the company’s ‘incredible’ quarter.
“My understanding is Nvidia has some managers who are telling their people to use less AI. Are you insane?” Huang reportedly said in the recording. “I want every task that is possible to be automated with artificial intelligence to be automated with artificial intelligence. I promise you; you will have work to do.”
This push to use more AI tools has been happening across the industry, especially among massive tech companies like Meta and Microsoft. These two giants have been mandating their employees to use AI, with the use of such tools becoming a part of their evaluation. Business Insider also reports that Google has instructed its engineers to use AI for coding, while Amazon employees have requested the company to adopt AI coding tool Cursor.
On the other hand, the widespread adoption of AI has made most employees wary of being replaced by machines. Even experts and industry leaders have been warning about this trend: Ford CEO Jim Farley said that it could wipe out half of white-collar jobs in the U.S., while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that it could cause up to 20% unemployment in the next half-decade. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory study even created a labor simulation tool that estimates that up to 11.7% of workers are in danger of being replaced by AI.
Nevertheless, Jensen Huang has reportedly reassured his employees that they are not in danger of being supplanted by this technology. Despite implementing the use of AI tools, Nvidia has continuously been hiring people, bringing in over 6,000 new faces in its last fiscal year. And amid the increasing tech industry layoffs, Huang says that the company probably needs about 10,000 more staff members.
It makes sense for Huang and Nvidia to push their people into using AI. After all, it’s the reason that the once-gaming GPU maker has become the first company in the world to hit a $5-trillion market capitalization. But it’s just a tool that can enhance the productivity of employees, not something that should replace them entirely.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
“I want every task that is possible to be automated with artificial intelligence to be automated with artificial intelligence. I promise you; you will have work to do.”
this is contradictory.
the type of work they do is all doable w/ ai and if you want it automated then they are on borrowed time.
At my job, middle/senior management has asked engineers to use AI at least once per day. I think that's actually the wrong approach, however. People can use AI in non-productive ways, simply to meet that target.
If you look at it from a manager's point of view, they don't like risk and rarely have time built into their schedule for experimentation. It's not surprising, if they're reluctant to depart with familiar and effective ways their team has met its previous goals, in the hope of finding some new efficiencies - especially if they've already gotten burned by AI when they've tried it.
I'm not saying there aren't ways to automate more tasks with AI, but trying to disrupt teams that are already under stress to deliver against aggressive goals just seems like the wrong approach. Instead, he should create some new teams that pair the more open-minded veteran engineers with some AI specialists, and have them work together to pioneer ways to integrate AI into their workflows and actually test it out on mini projects. Once they know what works, they can present their findings to the other teams and show their peers these more efficient ways to do their jobs.
What they really should be doing is teaching AI how to improve retention, safety, professional development, and worker satisfaction. Teach the AI how to mass produce good workers with good lives.
