• By quade
• 22 March 2024

Nvidia CEO Brings the Potential Death of Coding From AI

One of the biggest fears that comes along with new technology is how it will affect the job market. It is easy to talk about disruption in terms of finances like how industries can potentially grow and improve, but there is still a human aspect to it. Just as tech might improve a market or company, it can also lead to major disruptions for the workers as they are phased out.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no different, the worries here are greater than with other previous technology. As AI is meant to be all-encompassing, handling everything from web design to content creation, it has the greatest potential to affect people’s livelihoods. 

At the very least, this is a conversation worth having which is why Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has begun discussing the possibility the development of their products has to coding.

AI Could Replace Human Coders

While speaking at the Word Government Summit in Dubai, Jensen discussed the potential for human coders and programmers to be replaced by AI. This is hardly a new stance as he has repeatedly talked about this in previous interviews, though this is the first time he mentioned it to such an influential audience.

He says that this is due to the rapid development of AI technology. Automating programming through AI has been an early goal of Nvidia, it is only recently that AI has gotten competent enough to code reliably. 

Many early coding projects struggled because the model generated bad and unusable code. This would make their projects bloated and require a human coder to monitor and fix their mistakes.

However, some recent models have shown improvements in this regard as they can generate good code far more reliably and have a better range of capabilities. Some AI can supposedly create entire websites or simple video games without human interference.

What This Means For Human Coders

For many years, coding has been a vital skill pushed by many in the tech industry. They encouraged workers to take up coding, but Jensen’s claims have been a break in these claims.

However, because of these new AI tools, the need for younger workers to learn coding becomes less important since the process will now be fully automated. He claims this will be more economical as new coders often spend hundreds of hours learning specific coding languages to become experienced coders. 

In contrast, most AI tools can be programmed with multiple coding languages, allowing businesses to access coding services immediately and get more options.

“It is our job to create computing technology such that nobody has to program. And that the programming language is human, everybody in the world is now a programmer. This is the miracle of artificial intelligence,” 

– Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia

Investing Skills Elsewhere

Jensen has also recommended alternative places for coders to put their skills in. He pointed out that other industries worker shortages such as farming, biology, and manufacturing. These places are outdated and could use tech-savvy employees to help modernize it.

At the same time, he pointed out that coding won’t fully be phased out. There will still be jobs for experts and experienced covers who can work with the AI.

The time otherwise spent learning to code should instead be invested in expertise in industries such as farming, biology, manufacturing, and education, the Nvidia head stated. It isn’t all doom and gloom for coding though, as some skills will still be needed to know when and where to use AI programming.

It is a matter of upskilling where those who can level up their skills provide knowledge to better understand AI. According to him, upskilling not only equips individuals with the prowess to harness AI programming effectively but also illuminates the nuances of when and how to deploy it. Expounding on his vision, Huang envisions a future where natural language processing transcends boundaries, envisioning a realm where coding proficiency hinges solely on one’s native tongue.