Keynote by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at 2024 SIEPR Economic Summit
Summary
TLDRIn a thought-provoking conversation, Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, discusses the transformative impact of artificial intelligence and accelerated computing. Huang shares insights on the future of AI, emphasizing the importance of multimodality and reasoning capabilities. He also addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by geopolitical risks in the tech industry, highlighting the rise of sovereign AI and the need for countries to control their digital intelligence. Furthermore, Huang touches on the role of Nvidia in custom solutions and the evolving landscape of computer programming, where prompt engineering becomes crucial.
Takeaways
- π Jensen Huang, co-founder of Nvidia, emphasizes the significance of artificial intelligence and accelerated computing as the defining technologies of the 21st century.
- π Nvidia has been dedicated to a new form of computing called accelerated computing, aiming to solve problems that general-purpose computing is not equipped to handle efficiently.
- π‘ The cost of computing has been reduced by 1 million times in the last decade, enabling large-scale AI applications like deep learning and data analysis.
- π§ AI has reached a point where it can understand the meaning of digital knowledge, not just patterns, allowing for advancements in fields like gene sequencing and protein structure analysis.
- π The future of AI involves continuous learning and real-time adaptation, with reinforcement learning loops becoming integrated into everyday operations and decision-making processes.
- π Nvidia's GPU technology is foundational for the world's inferencing capabilities, with the company's platforms being the backbone for AI interactions globally.
- π οΈ The importance of character and resilience over intelligence is highlighted, as these traits are seen as crucial for achieving greatness and success in both individuals and companies.
- π Geopolitical risks impact Nvidia as a company, but also create opportunities for the development of sovereign AI capabilities in various countries.
- πΌ The future may see Nvidia and other tech companies offering more customized solutions to clients, leveraging their existing ecosystems and technological advancements.
- π Jensen Huang advises aspiring entrepreneurs to embrace challenges and suffering as a means to build resilience and character, which are essential for long-term success.
Q & A
What is Jensen Wong's background and how did he become involved in the field of artificial intelligence?
-Jensen Wong was born in Taiwan and moved to the US at age nine. He skipped two grades and graduated from high school early, then went on to study electrical engineering at Oregon State. He co-founded Nvidia at age 30 and has been instrumental in the development of accelerated computing, which has played a significant role in the advancement of AI technologies.
What is the significance of the transistor in the history of technology?
-The transistor is considered one of the greatest inventions in the history of technology. It revolutionized the electronics industry by enabling the miniaturization of electronic components, which in turn led to the development of modern computing devices.
How has Nvidia's approach to computing contributed to the development of AI?
-Nvidia has focused on a new form of computing called accelerated computing. This approach involves creating specialized hardware and software to solve problems that general-purpose computing is not well-equipped to handle, such as large-scale data processing and machine learning tasks that are fundamental to AI.
What is the role of AI in the future of technology according to Jensen Wong?
-Jensen Wong believes that AI, enabled by accelerated computing, is the single greatest invention of the computer industry and will likely be the most important development of the 21st century. He sees AI as a transformative technology that will continue to evolve and improve, leading to continuous learning and real-time problem-solving capabilities.
What is the significance of Nvidia's H100 chip and its impact on data centers?
-The H100 chip is a significant advancement in computing as it can replace an entire data center of old CPUs in a single unit. This has led to a dramatic reduction in the marginal cost of computing, enabling new possibilities in AI and data processing at scales previously unattainable.
How does Jensen Wong view the future of AI in relation to human intelligence?
-Jensen Wong suggests that while we are making significant strides in AI, defining and achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) that mirrors human intelligence is still a challenge. He emphasizes the need for clear specifications and tests to measure success in achieving AGI.
What is the role of AI in drug discovery and biology according to Jensen Wong?
-Jensen Wong sees AI playing a crucial role in understanding the meaning of biological data. He envisions a future where AI can be used to understand the function of proteins, the meaning of genes, and the complex interactions within cells, which could revolutionize drug discovery and medical research.
How does Jensen Wong maintain motivation and inspire his employees at Nvidia?
-Jensen Wong maintains motivation through a culture of transparency, constant feedback, and a focus on company values. He believes in empowering employees with information and opportunities, and fostering an environment where everyone is working towards a common goal.
What is Jensen Wong's perspective on the future of coding and programming?
-Jensen Wong believes that while coding will remain important, the future of interacting with computers will be less about traditional programming languages and more about 'prompt engineering,' where users interact with AI through natural language, making technology more accessible to everyone.
How does Jensen Wong respond to the challenges of geopolitical risks in the tech industry?
-Jensen Wong acknowledges the impact of geopolitical risks on the tech industry, particularly for companies like Nvidia that create essential AI tools. He emphasizes the need for companies to understand and comply with policies, and to be agile enough to adapt to changing geopolitical landscapes.
What is the potential impact of AI on the job market and economy?
-Jensen Wong suggests that AI has the potential to close the technology divide by enabling more people to interact with and program computers through natural language. However, he also acknowledges that this shift could lead to changes in the job market, with new opportunities arising in areas like prompt engineering and AI interaction design.
Outlines
π€ Introduction and Recognition
The speaker welcomes the audience and introduces Jensen Wong, highlighting his achievements in artificial intelligence and technology. The introduction includes a brief overview of John Chauvin's accomplishments and contributions to the community, as well as his role in starting the SE economic Summit 20 years ago. The speaker expresses gratitude towards John and looks forward to the conversation between Jensen and John.
π Nvidia's Impact and Jensen's Background
The speaker discusses Nvidia's recent earnings announcement and its significance in the technology sector. Jensen Wong's background is detailed, from his early life and education to his co-founding of Nvidia. The speaker emphasizes the transformative impact of Nvidia and accelerated computing, and congratulates Jensen on his recent election to the National Academy of Engineering.
π AI and the Future of Computing
Jensen Wong shares his perspective on the significance of AI and accelerated computing, comparing it to the invention of the transistor. He discusses the evolution of computing, particularly the reduction in the cost of computing and deep learning. Jensen explains how Nvidia's focus on accelerated computing has led to breakthroughs in AI, enabling the creation of large language models and the extraction of digital human knowledge.
π‘ Innovation in Chip Technology
The speaker and Jensen discuss the advancements in chip technology, specifically Nvidia's h100 and the upcoming h200. Jensen explains how these chips represent a reinvention of computing, reducing the marginal cost of computing and enabling new possibilities in AI and data processing. He also touches on the future of chip development and the potential for continuous learning and real-world application.
π The Role of AI in Various Industries
Jensen elaborates on the application of AI in various fields, such as gene sequencing and protein structure analysis. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the meaning behind digital information and how AI can contribute to significant advancements in these areas. Jensen also discusses the potential for AI to improve itself through continuous learning and interaction with real-world data.
π€ The Future of AI and Its Integration
The conversation turns to the future of AI, with Jensen discussing the potential for AI to develop human-like intelligence. He addresses the challenges in defining and achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the importance of multimodality and reasoning capabilities. Jensen also shares his thoughts on the evolving role of AI in drug discovery and the broader implications for the understanding of biology.
π Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Jensen offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of resilience over high expectations. He shares his belief that success is rooted in character, which is built through suffering and setbacks. Jensen encourages students to embrace challenges and to approach their entrepreneurial journeys with a mindset of continuous learning and adaptation.
πΌ Employee Motivation and Company Culture
Jensen discusses his approach to maintaining a motivated and agile workforce, highlighting the importance of transparency, constant feedback, and a shared vision. He explains that his management style involves open communication and a focus on collective goals rather than individual performance reviews. Jensen believes that this culture of openness and empowerment is key to the company's agility and success.
π Geopolitical Impact on the AI Industry
Jensen addresses the geopolitical risks associated with the AI industry, particularly in relation to Nvidia's products. He acknowledges the challenges posed by international regulations and the need for companies to adapt. However, he also sees these challenges as opportunities for growth, as countries around the world invest in their own sovereign AI capabilities. Jensen views the current geopolitical landscape as a catalyst for a broader global commitment to AI development.
π Customization and Future Directions
Jensen discusses the potential for customizing solutions for customers, particularly those with unique needs or large scale. He explains that while significant customization can be costly, leveraging existing platforms and adding value is beneficial. Jensen is open to such collaborations, as long as they do not compromise the extensive investment made in developing the company's current technology ecosystem.
π Closing Remarks
The session concludes with a final word of thanks from the speaker to John and Jensen for their insightful discussion. The audience is left with a deeper understanding of the AI industry's current state and its promising future.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Artificial Intelligence (AI)
π‘Accelerated Computing
π‘Innovation
π‘Transistor
π‘Deep Learning
π‘National Academy of Engineering
π‘Sovereign AI
π‘Prompt Engineering
π‘Geopolytics
π‘Entrepreneurship
Highlights
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Transcripts
welcome back everyone after the short
break I know that many of you are
looking forward to hearing from our next
speaker Jensen
Wong Jensen is at The Cutting Edge of
artificial
intelligence and all of the
innovation
technology and human capital that is
needed to support
it my good friend and Seer colleague
John Chauvin is going to introduce
Jensen and I hope he's here somewhere so
I'm just going to keep talking and then
the two of them will have a conversation
before taking some of your
questions John chovin certainly requires
very little introduction to many most In
This Crowd as my predecessor as the Tron
director of seer John is the one who
started the SE economic Summit 20 years
ago so I would just like right now for
all of us to give John chovin a huge
round of applause and appreciate the
community that he had the foresight to
build uh for those of you who haven't
been touched by John's research his
mentorship or his friendship here's what
here's just a snippet of what you might
like to know about him along with being
the former Seer director and a Seer
Senor senior fellow Meritus John is the
Charles R Schwab professor of Economics
he is also a senior fellow at the Hoover
institution and a research associate of
the National Bureau of economic research
he specializes in public finance and
corporate finance and has published many
articles over the years on social
security health economics corporate
personal taxation mutual funds pension
plans economic demography applied
General equilibrium economics and much
more uh John isn't one for long
introductions but I just will say that
if I can be on10th as helpful to my
successor as John uh has been to me I'll
feel like I've uh succeeded so I will
let you read more about his Publications
and accomplishments in the programs
you've received uh today and so please
join me in welcoming our good friend
John Chauvin and I'm really looking
forward to
this
thanks wow thank you so I have always
thought that the more famous the speaker
the shorter the appropriate
introduction and if I was to follow that
rule I would stop right now and say
Jensen Wong but I'm not going to do
that
um so the Oxford English
Dictionary defines the American
dream believe it or not it does that and
it says that it's a situation where
everybody has an equal opportunity for
Success Through hard work dedication and
initiative and I would like to say that
Jensen Wong is an example of the
American dream
Jensen uh was born in
Taiwan came to the US at age nine with
his brother not with his
parents went to a rough tough School in
Kentucky survived that his parents came
two years later he moved to Oregon
skipped two grades and graduated from
high school and went to Oregon state
electrical engineering major 150 men and
two
women he said he was 16 he looked like
he was 12 he had no chance with the
women
well he sort of liked one of them and
said why don't we work on homework
together did that over and over and over
again six months later he after out for
a date well he's still married to her so
another American
Dream now to skip to age 30 he co-founds
Nvidia he's the only CEO there's ever
been of
Nvidia it's had its ups and its down
more UPS than
Downs it's now the fourth largest
company in the world third largest
American uh company so that sounds to me
like the American
dream um I should add that he also got a
degree from Stanford master's degree I
think he did it mostly at night
uh and he was always good with homework
at worked with his wife at worked with
Stanford uh
too um now of course we were here last
week Nvidia announced its
earnings in the finance
crowd this got more attention than the
Super Bowl that occurred a couple weeks
earlier it was pretty uh amazing uh his
company is at the absolute center of the
most exciting develop vment I'd say of
the 21st century technology development
and uh so he's to be congratulated on
that let me just say uh he's received a
lot of
awards a lot of recognition Enid has
received a lot of awards a lot of
recognition but I should have a short
introduction so I'm about to quit I'm
just going to talk about one
award last month he was elected as a
member of the National Academy of
engineering this is a pretty prestigious
award there are only three that I know
of I actually asked chat GPT I didn't
get an absolute clear
answer how many CEOs of S&P 500
companies are members of the National
Academy of engineering but I think it's
three and two are in this room anaru
Devan of Cadence Design Systems was
awarded it last year so the two of them
have that in common but let me now just
conclude and
congratulate Jensen not only on this
award but on the amazing success of your
company and thank you for speaking to us
today at Seer
Jensen how
it thank you thank you you're here I'm
here I guess so
okay so why don't you start off with
maybe some opening remarks and then I'll
ask you a few questions and then then
you get the tough questions well I think
that after your opening remarks uh it is
smartest for me not to make any opening
remarks to to uh uh avoid risking uh
damaging all the good things you said
you know but but um let's see it's it's
always good to have a pickup line um and
mine was was uh do you want to see my
[Laughter]
homework and you're right we're married
still we have two beautiful kids I have
a perfect life uh two great puppies and
um I love my job and and uh she still
enjoys my
homework well if you want I can ask you
a few questions then yes please so if in
my lifetime I thought the biggest
technical development technology
breakthrough was the transistor now I'm
older than you yeah uh and it was pretty
fundamental deal but should I rethink is
AI now the biggest change in
technology that has occurred in the last
76 years to to hint at my age yeah um
well first first of all the the
transistor was obviously a great
invention but what
was the greatest capability that enabled
was
software the ability for humans to
express our ideas algorithms uh in a
repeatable way computationally
repeatable way uh was a was is the
Breakthrough um what have we done we
dedicated our company in the last 30
years 31 years uh to a new form of
computing called accelerated Computing
the idea is that general purpose
Computing is not ideal for every every
field of work and we said why don't we
in invent a new way of doing computation
such that we can solve problems that
general purpose Computing is ill
equipped at at
solving and and uh uh what we what we
have effectively done in in a particular
area of a domain of computation that is
that's that is algorithmic in nature
that can be paralyzed we've taken the
computational cost of computers to
approximately zero
so what happens when you when you uh are
able to take the marginal cost of
something to approximately zero some we
enabled a new way of doing software
where it used to be written by humans we
now can use computers to write the
software because the computational cost
is approximately zero and so you might
as well uh let the computer go off and
grind on just a massive amount of
experience we call data digital
experience human dig digital experience
called data and grind on it to find the
relationships and patterns that as a
result represents human knowledge and
that miracle happened about a decade and
a half ago we saw it coming and and we
took the whole company and we shaped our
computer which was already which was
already driving the marginal cost of
computing down to
zero and we pushed it into this whole
domain and as a result in the last 10
years we reduced the cost of computing
by 1 million times
the cost of deep learning by 1 million
times and a lot of people said said to
me but Jensen if you if you reduce the
cost of computing your your cost by a
million times then people buy less of it
and it's exactly the opposite we saw
that if we could reduce the marginal
cost of computing down to approximately
zero we might use it to do something
insanely amazing large language
models to literally extract all of
digital human knowledge from the
internet and put it into to a computer
and let it go figure out what the wisd
what the knowledge is that idea of
scraping the entire internet and putting
it in one computer let the computer
figure out what the program is is an
insane concept but you wouldn't ever
consider doing it unless the marginal
cost of computing was zero and so so we
made we made that breakthrough and now
we've enabled this new way of doing
software imagine you know for for all
the people that are still new to
artificial intelligence we figured out
how to use a computer to understand the
meaning not the pattern but the meaning
of almost all digital knowledge and
everything you can digit anything you
can digitize we can understand the
meaning so let me give you an example
Gene sequencing is digitizing genes but
now with large language models we can go
understand go un go learn the meaning of
that
Gene amino acids we
digitized you know through Mass Spec we
digitized
um Pro amino acids now we can understand
from the amino acid sequence without a
whole lot of work with cryms and things
like that we can go figure out what is
the structure of the protein and what it
does what is this meaning we can also do
that on a fairly large scale pretty soon
we can understand what's the meaning of
a cell a whole bunch of genes that are
connected together and this is from a
computer's perspective no
different than there's a a a whole page
of words and you asked it to what is the
meaning of it summarize what did it say
summarize it for me what's the meaning
this is no different than a hard you
know big huge long page of genes what's
the meaning of that big long page of
proteins what's the meaning of that and
so we're on the cusp of all this this is
just this is the miracle of of what
happened and so I would it's a
longwinded answer of saying John that
you're absolutely right that that that
that AI which was enabled by this form
this new form of computing we call
Accelerated Computing that took three
decades to do uh is probably the single
greatest invention of the computer of
the in of the technology industry this
will likely be the most important thing
of the 21st
century I agree with that 21st century
but maybe not the the 20th century which
was the transistor which it's got to be
close we'll let history decide that's
right we'll let history decide could you
look ahead you I I I take it that the
the GPU chip that is
behind uh artificial intelligence right
now is your h100 and I know you're
introducing an h200 and I think I read
that you plan to upgrade that each year
and so could you think ahead five years
March
2029 you're introducing the
H700 right what will it allow us to do
that we can't do
now um I'll go backwards but but let me
first say something about the chip that
John just described um as we say a chip
all of you in the audience probably
because you've seen a chip before you
you imagine there's a chip kind of like
you know like this um the chip that John
just described uh weighs 70
lbs it consists of 35,000
Parts eight of those parts came from
tsmc it that one
chip
replaces um a data center of old CPUs
like this into one
computer the savings because we compute
so fast the
savings of that one computer is
incredible and yet it's the most
expensive computer the world's ever seen
it's it's a quarter of a million dollar
per chip we sell the world's first quar
million dollar chip but the system that
it replaced the cables alone cost more
than the chip this
h100 the cables of connecting all those
old computers that's the that's the
incredible thing that we did we
reinvented Computing and as a result
Computing marginal cost of computing
went to zero that's what I just
explained we took this entire data
center We Shrunk it into this one chip
well this one
chip uh uh is really really great at
trying to figure out um uh uh this form
this form of computation that that
without without
without getting weird on you guys um
call Deep learning it's really good at
this thing called Ai and so so uh the
way that this chip
works it works not just at the chip
level but it works at the chip level and
the algorithm level and the data center
level it works
together it can't it doesn't do all of
its work by itself it works as a team
and so you connect a whole bunch of
these things together and it works at
you know networking as part of it and so
when you look at one of our computers it
it's a it's a magnificent thing you know
only only computer Engineers would think
it's magnificent but it's magnificent
okay um it weighs a lot miles and miles
of cables hundreds of miles of cables
and and the next one's soon coming is
liquid cooled and you know it's
beautiful in a lot of ways okay and and
um uh and it computes at data center
scales and together what's going to
happen in the next 10 years say John um
we'll increase the computational
capability for M for deep learning by
another million times and what happens
when you do that what happens when you
do that um today we we kind of learn and
then we apply it we go train inference
we learn and we apply it in the future
we'll have continuous
learning We could decide whether that
whatever that continuous learning um
result it will be uh uh deployed into
you know the world's applications or not
but the computer will will watch videos
and and new text and uh from all the
interactions that it's just continuously
improving itself the learning process
and the Train the the training process
and the inference process the training
process and the deployment process
application process will just become
one well that's exactly what we do you
know we don't have like between now and
o' in the morning I'm going to be doing
my learning and then after that I'll
just be doing inference you're learning
and inferencing all the time and that
reinforcement learning Loop will be
continuous and that reinforcement
learning will be grounded with real
world data that is been um uh through
interaction as well as synthetically
generated data that we're creating in
real time so this computer will be
imagining all the time does that make
sense just like just as when you're
learning you you take take pieces of
information and you go from first
principles it should work like this and
then we we do the the simulation the
imagination in our brain and that that
future imaginate imag imagin state in a
lot of ways manifests itself to us as
reality and so your AI computer in the
future will kind of do the same it'll do
synthetic data generation it'll do
reinforcement learning it'll continue to
be grounded by real world experiences um
it'll imagine some things it'll test it
with real world experience I'll be
grounded by that and that entire Loop is
just one giant
Loop that's what happens when you can
compute for a million times cheaper than
today and so as I as I'm saying this
notice what's what's at the core of it
when you can drive the marginal cost of
computing down to zero then there are
many new ways of doing something you're
willing to
do this is no different than I'm willing
to go further places because the
marginal cost of Transportation has gone
to zero I can fly from here to New York
relatively cheap cheaply if it would if
it would have taken a month you know
probably never go and so it's exactly
the same in transportation and all just
about everything that we do and so we're
we're going to take the marginal cost of
computing down to approximately zero as
a result we'll do a lot more
computation that causes
me as you probably know there have been
some recent stories that Nvidia will
face more competition in the inference
Market than it has in the training
Market but what you're saying is it's
actually going to be one market I think
can you comment about um you know is
there going to be a separate training
chip market and inference chip Market or
it sounds like you're going to be
continuously uh training and switching
to inference maybe within one chip I I
don't I don't know why don't you explain
more well today today whenever you uh
prompt uh an AI it could be chat GPT or
it could be co-pilot or it could be uh
if you're using a surface nail platform
you using mid Journey um using Firefly
from Adobe whenever you're prompting
it's doing inference you know inference
is right so it's it's generating
information for you whenever you do that
what's behind it 100% of them is NVIDIA
gpus and so Nvidia most of the time you
engage our our our platforms are when
you're inferencing and so we are 100% of
the world's inferencing today is NVIDIA
now is inferencing hard or Easy A lot of
people the the reason why people are
picking on inferences when you look at
training and you look at Nvidia system
doing training when you just look at it
you go that looks too hard I'm not going
to go do that I'm a chip company that
doesn't look like a
chip and so there's a natural and you
have to in order for you to even prove
that something works or not you're $2
billion doll into it
yeah and you turn it on to realize it's
not very effective you're $2 billion in
two years into it the risk the risk of
exploring something new is too high for
the for the customers and and so a lot
of a lot of competitors tend to say you
know we're not into we're not into
training we're into inference inference
is incredibly hard let's think about it
for a
second the the the the response time of
inference has to be really high but this
is the this is the easy part that's the
computer science part the the E the hard
part of inference is the goal of
somebody who's doing inference is to
engage a lot more users to to apply that
software to a large install
base inference is an install base
problem this is no different than
somebody who's writing a an application
on on on an iPhone um the reason why
they do so is because iPhone has such an
large install base almost everyone has
one and so if you wrote an application
for that phone it's going to have the
benefit of it it's going to be able to
benefit everybody well in the case of
Nvidia our accelerated Computing
platform is the only accelerated
Computing platform that's literally
everywhere and because we we've been
working on it for so long if you wrote
an application for inference and you
take that model and you Deploy on
invidious architecture it literally runs
everywhere and so you could touch
everybody you can enable have greater
impact and so the problem with inference
is is actually install base and that
takes enormous patience and years and
years of success and dedication to
architecture compatibility you know so
on so
forth you make completely State
of-the-art chips is it possible though
that you'll face
competition that is claims to be good
enough not as good as Nvidia but good
enough and and much cheaper is that a is
that a threat well first of all
competition um we we have more
competition than anyone on the planet
has competition
uh not only do we have competition from
competitors we have competition from our
customers and um and and I'm the only
competitor to a customer um fully
knowing they're about to design a chip
to replace ours and I show them not only
what my current chip is I show them what
my next chip is and I'll show them what
my chip after that is and so and the
reason for that is because because look
if you don't if you don't make an
attempt at uh uh explaining why you're
good at something
they'll never get a chance to to buy
your your products and so so we're we're
completely open book in working with
just about everybody in the industry um
and and the reason the reason for that
our our advantage is several our
advantage what we're about is several
things whereas you could build a chip to
to be good at one particular algorithm
remember Computing is more than even
Transformers there's this idea called a
Transformers there's a whole bunch of
species of Transformers and their new
Transformers being invented as we speak
and the number of different types of
software is really quite quite rich and
the reason for that is because software
Engineers love to create new things
Innovation and we want that what Nvidia
is good at is that our our architecture
not only does it accelerate algorithms
it's programmable meaning that that you
can use it for SE we're the only
accelerator for SQL SQL was came about
in the
1960s IBM 1970s in storage Computing I
mean sqls structured data is as
important as it gets uh 300 zettabytes
of data being created you know every
couple of years Mo most of it is in sqls
structured databases and so so we're we
can accelerate that we can Accel
accelerate quantum physics we can
accelerate shortes equations we can
accelerate just about you know every
fluids particles um you know lots and
lots of code and so what Nvidia is good
at is the General field of accelerated
Computing one of them is generative Ai
and so for a data center that wants to
have a lot of customers some of it in
financial services some of it you know
some of it in in manufacturing so on so
forth in the world of computing we're
you know we're we're a great standard
we're in every single Cloud we're in
every single computer company and so our
company's architecture has become a
standard if you will after some 30
somewhat years and and so that's that's
really our advantage if a customer can
can um do something specifically that's
more cost effective quite frankly I'm
even surprised by that and the reason
for that is
this remember artchip is only part think
of when you see a when you see computers
these days it's not a computer like a
laptop it's a computer it's a Data
Center and you have to operate it and so
people who buy and sell chips think
about the price of chips people who
operate data centers think about the
cost of
operations our time to deployment our
performance performance our utilization
our flexibility across all these
different applications in
total allows our operations cost they
call total cost of operations TCO our
TCO is so good that even when the
competitor's chips are free it's not
cheap
enough and that that is our goal to add
so much value that the alternative um is
not about cost and and so so we of
course of course that takes a lot of a
lot of hard work and we have to keep
innovating and things like that and we
don't take anything for granted but we
have a lot of
competitors as you know but maybe not
everybody in the audience knows there's
this term artificial general
intelligence which basically I was
hoping not to sound competitive but John
asked a question that kind of triggered
a competitive Gene and I came AC I I
want to say I want to apologize I came
across you know if if you will a little
[Laughter]
competitive I apologize for that I could
have probably done that more
artfully I will next time but he
surprised me with a competitive I I I I
thought I was on an economic
Forum you know just walking in here I
asked him I'd sent some questions to his
team and I said did you look at the
questions he says no I didn't look at
the questions cuz I wanted to be
spontaneous besides I might start
thinking about it and then uh that that
would be bad so we're just kind of
winging it here um both of us um so I
was asking when when do you think and of
course it when do you think we will
achieve artificial general intelligence
the sort of human level intelligence is
that is that 50 years away is it five
years away what's your
opinion um I'll give you a very specific
answer but but first let me let me just
tell you a couple things about what's
happening that's super exciting first uh
of course of course um uh we're training
these models to be multimodality meaning
uh that we will learn from sounds we
will learn from uh words we'll learn
from uh vision and we'll just watch TV
and learn uh so on so forth okay just
like all of us and the reason why that's
so important is because we want AI to be
grounded grounded not just by human
value use which is what chat GPT um
really innovated I remember we had large
language models before but if it wasn't
until reinforcement learning human
feedback that human feedback that
grounds the AI to something that that we
feel good about human values okay um and
now could you imagine now you have to
generate images and videos and things
like that how does it the AI know that
hands don't penetrate through you know
podiums uh that feet stand above the
ground that when you step on water you
all fall into it so you have to ground
it on physics and so so now ai has to
learn um by watching a lot of different
examples and ideally mostly video uh
that certain be certain properties um uh
are are obeyed in in in the world okay
it has to create what is called a world
model and so so one we have to we have
to understand multimodality there's a
whole bunch of other modalities like as
I mentioned before genes and amino acids
and proteins and cells which leads to
organs and you know so on so forth and
so we would like to uh multim modality
second is um uh greater and greater
reasoning capabilities a lot of a lot of
the things that we already do uh
reasoning skills are encoded in common
sense you know Common Sense is reasoning
that we all kind of take for granted and
so there are a lot of things in our
knowledge in the internet that already
encodes reasoning and and and models can
learn that um but there's higher level
reasoning uh capabilities for example
example there's some questions that you
ask me right now when we're talking I'm
mostly doing generative
AI I'm not spending a whole lot of time
reasoning about the question however
there are certain problems like for
example planning problems where I'm
going to that's interesting let me think
about that and I'm cycling it in the
back and I'm coming up with the multiple
plans I've got I'm traversing a tree
maybe I'm going through my graph and you
know I'm I'm I'm pruning my tree and
saying this doesn't make sense but this
I'm going to put and I simulate it in my
head and maybe I do some calculations
and so on so forth that long thinking
that long thinking AI is not good at
today everything that you prompt into
chat gbt it responds instantaneously we
would like to prompt something into chat
gbt give it a mission statement give it
a problem and for it to think a while
isn't that right and so so that kind of
system you know what computer science
call system 2 thinking or long thinking
or planning those kind of things
reasoning reasoning and planning those
kind of problems I think we're going to
we're working on those things and I
think that you're going to see some
breakthroughs and so in the future the
way you're interact with AI will be very
different some of it will be just just
give me a question question and answer
some of it say here's a problem go work
on it for a while okay tell me tomorrow
and it it it does the the largest amount
of computation it can do U by tomorrow
you you could also say I'm going to give
you this problem U you know spend $1,000
on it but don't spend more than more
than that and it comes back with the
best answer within the Thousand or you
you know so on so forth okay so so
that's now
AGI the question on AGI is what's the
definition yeah in fact that's kind of
the Supreme question now if you ask me
uh if you say Jensen uh AGI is a list of
a list of tests and remember an engineer
can only know an engineer knows that
we've you know anybody in the in in that
you know prestigious organization that
I'm now powered of it knows for sure
about engineers is that you need to have
a specification and you need to know
what the definition of successes you
need to have a test now if I if I gave
uh an AI a lot of math tests and
reasoning tests and a history test and
biology tests and medical exams and bar
exams and you name it SATs and mcats and
every single test that you can possibly
imagine you make that list of tests and
you put it in front of put it in front
of the computer science Industry
I'm guessing in 5 years time we'll do
well on every single one of
them and so if your definition of AG is
that it passes human
tests yep then I will tell you five
years if you tell me but is it if you
asked it to me a little bit differently
the way you asked it that AGI is going
to be have human intelligence well I'm
not exactly sure how to specify all of
your intelligence yet and nobody does
really and therefore it's hard to
achieve as an engineer does that make
sense okay and so so the answer is we're
not sure and and um uh but we're we're
all endeavoring to make it you know
better and better so I'm going to ask
two more questions and I'm going to turn
it over because I think there's lots of
uh good questions out there the first
one I was going to ask about is could
you just dive a little deeper into what
you see as ai's role in drug discovery
the first role is to understand
understand the meaning of the digital
information that we
have right now we have we have all as
you know we have U uh we have a whole
lot of amino acids we can now uh because
of alpha fold um understand the protein
structure in many of them but the
question is now what is the meaning of
that
protein what is the meaning of this
protein what is this function uh it
would be great just as you can chat with
GPT
uh as you guys know uh there's you can
chat with a PDF you take a PDF file
doesn't matter what it is my favorites
are you take a PDF file of a of a
research paper and you load it into chat
G and you start at just talking to it
it's like talking to the
researchers is you know just ask what
what inspired this this research what
problem does it solve you know what was
the Breakthrough what what was the what
was the state- of art before then what
were the what were the novel ideas
just talk to it like a human okay in the
future want to take a protein put it
into chat GPT just like
PDF what are you
for what what enzymes activate you you
know what makes you
happy for
example there'll be a whole whole
sequence of genes and you're going to
take the and represents a cell you you
going to put that cell in what are you
for what do you do what are you good for
you know what do you hopes and dreams
and so so that that's that's one of the
most profound things we can do is to
understand the meaning of biology does
that make sense if we can understand the
meaning of biology as you guys know once
we understand the meaning of almost any
information that it's in the world the
computer science in the world of
computing amazing engineers and amazing
scientists know exactly what to do with
it but that's the Breakthrough the
multiomic multi multi-omic um
understanding of
biology and so that's if I could you
know deep and shallow answer to your I
think that's probably the single most
profound thing that we can do boy Oregon
State and Stanford are really proud of
you so if I could switch gears just a
little bit and just say Stanford has a
lot of
aspiring entrepreneurs students that are
entrepreneurs and maybe they're computer
science Majors or or engineering majors
of some
sort please don't build
gpus what what advice would you give
them uh to improve their chances of
success um you
know one one of my one of I think one of
my my great advantages is that I have
very low
expectations um and
and and I mean that um most of most of
the Stanford graduates have very high
expectations you you and you deserve to
have have expectations because you came
from a great school um uh you were very
successful you're on top of your top of
your class uh obviously you were able to
pay for tuition um and and uh uh and
then you're graduating from one of the
finest institutions on the planet you're
surrounded by other kids that are just
incredible you should have very you you
naturally have very high
expectations um people with very high
expectations have very low
resilience and unfortunately resilience
matters in
success I don't know how to teach it to
you except for I hope suffering happens
to
you and and uh I I was fortunate that I
grew up with a with a with you know with
my parents um
uh uh providing a condition for us to be
successful on the one hand um but there
were plenty of plenty of opportunities
for setbacks and suffering and um you
know and and to to this day I use the
word the phrase pain and suffering
inside our company with great Glee and
the reason and I mean that you know boy
this is going to cause a lot of pain and
suffering and I mean that in a happy way
um because because you want to train you
want to refine the character of your
company you want want that you want
greatness out of them and greatness is
not intelligence as you know greatness
comes from character and character isn't
isn't formed out of smart people it's
formed out of people who
suffered and and so so that's that's
kind of and so if I could if I could
wish upon you I don't know how to do it
but you know for all of you Stanford
students I I wish upon you you know
ample doses of pain and
suffering
I'm going to back out of my promise and
ask you one more
question how do you you seem incredibly
motivated and energetic but how do you
keep your employees motivated and
energetic when they probably become
richer than they ever expected
to I'm surrounded I'm surrounded by 55
people my management team so you know my
I I have a man my management team my
director reports is 55
people um uh I write no reviews for any
of them I give them constant
reviews uh and they provide the same to
me uh my compensation for them uh is the
the bottom right corner of excel I just
drag it down
literally many of our executives are
paid the same exactly to the
dollar I know it's weird
it works and and uh I don't do one-on
ones with any of
them unless they need me then I'll drop
everything for
them uh I never have meetings with them
just alone and they never hear me say
something to them uh that is only for
them to
know there's not one piece of
information that I that I somehow
secretly tell eaff that I don't tell the
rest of the company um uh and so in in
that in that way our company was
designed for agility for information to
be to flow as quickly as possible uh for
people to be empowered by what they are
able to do not what they know um and uh
I and so that that's the architecture of
our
company um I don't remember your
question but but oh oh oh oh oh oh oh I
got it I got it I got it I got it uh and
the the answer the answer for that is my
behavior yeah
the it's uh how do I celebrate success
how do I celebrate failure how do I talk
about success how do I talk about
setbacks um every single thing that I'm
looking for opportunities to instill
every single day I'm looking for
opportunities to to keep on uh
instilling the culture of the company
and what is important what's not
important what's the definition of good
how do you compare yourself to good how
do you think about good um uh how do you
think about a journey how do you think
about results uh all of that all day
long
Mark dougen can you help us okay good so
let's open it up uh for some questions
let me start with Winston and I'll come
to
you oh we need a microphone can you just
Ben you got this
yeah board member Winston I have a
couple question what's a story about
your leather
jacket and the second the second is
according to your projection and
calculation
in 5 to 10 years how much more
semiconductor manufacturing
capacity is
needed to support the growth of
AI okay uh I appreciate two questions um
uh the the uh the first question is this
is what my wife bought for me and this
is what I'm
[Laughter]
wearing and and because I do I do 0% of
my own shopping
uh as soon as something doesn't as soon
as she finds something that doesn't make
me
itch because she knows she's known me
since I was 17 years old and she thinks
that everything makes me itch and the
way I say I don't like something is it
makes me
itch and so as soon as she finds me
something that doesn't make me itch if
you look at my closet the whole closet
is a
shirt because she doesn't want to shot
for me
again and so so that's why uh this is
all she bought me and this is all I'm
wearing and if I if I don't like the
answer I can go shopping otherwise I
could wear it and it's good enough for
me we second question on this the
forecast is actually very this is very
I'm horrible at
forecasting but I'm very good at first
principled reasoning of the size of the
opportunity and so let me first reason
for you um uh I have no idea how many f
ABS but here's here's the thing that I
do know the way that we do Computing
today the the the information was was
written by someone created by someone
it's basically
pre-recorded all the words all the
videos all the sound everything that we
do is retrieval based it was
pre-recorded does that make sense as I
say that every time you touch on a phone
remember somebody wrote that and stored
it somewhere it was
pre-recorded okay every modality that
you know
in the
future because we're going to have
AIS it understands the current
circumstance and because it can it's
tapped into all of the world's you know
latest news and things like it's called
retrieval based okay and it understand
your context meaning it understood why
you asked what you're asking about when
you and I ask about the economy we
probably are meeting very different
things and for very different context
and based on that it can generate at
exactly the right information for you so
in the future it already understands
context and most of computing will be
generative in the today 100% of content
is
pre-recorded if in the future 100% of
content will be generative the question
is how many how does that change the
shape of computing and so without
torturing you anymore um I'll that's how
I reason through things how much more
networking do we need more less of that
do we need memory of this and and the
answer is we're going to need more
Fabs however uh remember that we're also
improving the algorithms and the
processing of it um tremendously over
time it's not as if the efficiency of
computing is what it is today and
therefore the demand is this much in the
meantime I'm improving Computing by a
million times every 10 years while
demand is going up by a trillion
times and that has to offset each other
does that make sense and then there's
technology diffusion and so on so forth
that's just a matter of time but it
doesn't change the fact that one day all
of the computers in the world will be
changed 100% every single data center
will be all of those general purpose
Computing data centers 100% of the
trillion dollars worth of infrastructure
will be completely changed and then
there'll be new infrastructure built on
even on top of that okay next question
right here
Ben and then over here to Rand so yeah
thanks for coming today so recently you
said that you encourage students not to
learn how to code yeah um and that's the
case it means one of maybe a few things
but do you think the world starts to
look like from a company formation an
entrepreneurship perspective that it
goes towards many many more companies
that are created or do you think it's
consolidation to just a number of the
big big players so so first of all um I
I I said it so poorly that you repeat it
back
poorly I I didn't if you would like to
code for God's sakes code okay if if you
want to make omelets make omelets I'm
not not you coding has coding is a
reasoning process it's
good does is it going to guarantee you a
job no not even a little
bit uh the the number of coders in the
world uh surely uh will continue to to
uh uh be important and we Nvidia needs
coders
however in the
future the way you interact with the
computer is not going to be C++ mostly
for some of us that's true for some of
us that's but for you you know why why
programming python so weird in the
future you'll tell the computer what you
want and the computer will will you you
say hi I would like you to come up with
a uh a build plan with all of the
suppliers and build a material for a
forecast that we have for you and based
on all of the equip all the necessary
components necessary coming up with a
bill plan okay and then if you if you
don't like that you write me a Python
program that I can modify of that bill
plan and so remember the first time I
talk to the computer I'm just speaking
in plain English the second time so
English by the way human is the best
programming language of the
future how you talk to a computer how do
you prompt it how do you prompt it it's
called prompt engineering how you
interact with people how do you interact
with computers how do you make a
computer do what you want it to do um
how do you fine-tune uh the instructions
with that computer that's called prompt
engineering there's an there's an
Artistry to that okay so for example
most people are surprised by this but
it's it's not surprising to me but but
it's surprising for example you ask mour
to generate a pcture an image of a puppy
on a on a surfboard um uh uh in Hawaii
uh at Sunset okay and then and then and
it generates one and go and you say oh
more
cute make it more cute and it comes back
it's more cute and you go no no cuter
than that and it comes back why is it
that software would do that there's a
there's a structural reason why it does
that but for example you need to know
that that that capability exists in a
computer in the future isn't that right
that you if you don't like the answer
first time you could you can find tuna
and get it to within the context that
you you know you can make it give you
better and better results and once you
you can even ask it to write the program
Al together to generate that result in
the future and so my point is that
programming has has changed in a way
that is probably less valuable on the
other hand let me I will tell you this
that because of artificial intelligence
we have closed the technology divide of
humanity today about
about 10 million
people are gainfully employed because we
know how to program
computers which leaves the other 8
billion
behind that's not true in the future we
all can program computers does that make
sense you all know how to prompt a
computer to make it do things and look
at all you to do is look at YouTube and
look at all the people who are using
prompt engineering all the kids and you
know who are making a do amazing things
they don't know how to program they're
just talking to chat
GPT they just know that if I tell it to
do this if do that you know and so it's
no different than interacting with
people in the future that's that's the
great contribution we've the computer
science Industry has made to the world
we've closed the technology divide so
that's that's inspiring okay over here
we've got that sounds very we've got
Randy with a question right over here oh
um thank you very much I'm just
wondering um about do you think very
much about geopolitical risk and um how
do you see it impacting your industry if
you
do uh geopolitical risk you know we we
are almost a poster child of
geopolitical
risk and the reason for that is because
uh we make a very important instrument
for artificial intelligence and
artificial intelligence as John and I
were talking about earlier is the
defining technology of this of this of
this
time and and um and so the United States
uh has every right to determine that
this instrument should be limited to uh
to uh countries that that it determines
that uh it should be limited limited uh
with and so so the United States have
has that right and they they exercise
that right um and your question has to
do with what is the implication to us I
uh we first of all we we just have to
understand these policies and we have to
stay agile so that we can comply with
the policies uh number one on the one
hand it limits our opportunity and in
some places and it it opens up
opportunities in others one of the
things that has happened in the last I
would say maybe even 6 to n months is
the Awakening of every single country
every single Society The Awakening that
they have to control their own digital
intelligence that India can't Outsource
its data so that some country transforms
that Digital Data into India's
intelligence and imports that
intelligence back to India that
Awakening that Sovereign AI that you
have to you have to dedicate yourself to
control your Sovereign AI your Sovereign
intelligence protect your language
protect your culture for your own
industries that Awakening I think
happened in the last 6 nine months the
first part was we have to be we have to
be mindful about safety then the second
part was hold on a second we we all have
to do this and so every single country
from from India um uh Canada's doing
this uh the UK France um Japan uh
Singapore Malaysia uh the list goes on
uh just about every single country now
realize that they have to invest in
their own Sovereign AI so geopolitics in
the one hand limited opportunities but
it created just enormous opportunities
elsewhere and so hard hard to say okay
so I think we I have multiple hands but
I have time for one more question I am
going to go
right here you had to you were further
on the now remember the last question
has all big pressure you guys agree with
that do you can we all agree right here
the the person who La asked the last
question don't don't leave us all
depressed I'm going to don't trigger me
please I'm I'm that's all I'm saying I'm
just kidding I'm going to invoke your
commandment to have low expectations at
this
juncture um you you mentioned your
competing with your customers and I'm
wondering you know given the advantages
that you have why they're doing that and
I'm wondering if in the future you see
yourself building more customized
solutions for customers of a certain
scale um as opposed to you know uh the
solutions that you have now which are
more
horizontal uh the the so so are we
willing to customize the answerers yes
now why is it that the bar is relatively
High the the reason why the bar is high
is because each generation of our our
platform first of all there's a GPU
there's a CPU there's a networking
processor there's a SW there two types
of
switches I just build five chips for one
generation people thinks it's one chip
but it's five different chips each one
of those chips are hundreds and hundreds
of millions of dollars to do just
hitting launch which is tape out for us
launching a rocket is several hundred
million dollar each time okay I I got
five of them per generation then you've
got to put them into into a system and
then you got to put you know you got
networking stuff you got C transceiver
stuff you got optic stuff you got a
mountain of software to do it takes a
lot of software to run a computer as big
as this room and so so all of that is
complicated if I if if the customization
is so
different then then you have to repeat
the entire R&D however if the
customization leverages everything and
adds something to it then it makes it's
makes a great deal of sense maybe it's a
it's a proprietary security system maybe
it's a confidential Computing system
maybe it's a a a new way of doing uh
numerical processing um that that could
be extended we're very open-minded to
that and the custo our our customers
know that I'm willing to do all that and
recognizes the the the if you change it
too far you've basically reset and
you've squandered you know the the
nearly hundred billion dollars that's
taken us to get here um uh to to redo it
from from scratch and so they want to
leverage our ecosystem to the extent
that that that that will be done I'm
very open to it yeah and they know and
they know that
yeah okay so with that I think we need
to wrap up thank you so much to John and
Jensen
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