How many times have we heard that if a young person wants to succeed as a worker, they must learn how to program. In my case, being already in my 30s, it was one of the pieces of advice that I had to hear for years from friends and experts.
Now, Jensen Huang has burst the programming bubble. The Nvidia CEO believes that AI has made the need to learn programming redundant, and that humans should focus on more important skills such as biology, education, manufacturing, or agriculture.
In his speech at the recent World Government Summit held in Dubai, Huang admitted that his statement was the opposite of what most technology luminaries have said in the last ten or fifteen years: that everyone, especially children, should learn to code.
AI as a tool to make programming something human
“Our job is to create computer technology such that no one has to program. And that the programming language is human,” said the CEO. “Everyone is now a programmer. This is the miracle of artificial intelligence.”
This is not the first time Huang has made statements of this kind. Almost exactly a year ago, in the Dean’s Speaker series at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, Huang spoke about how ChatGPT’s programming capabilities could change the landscape. “Literally, anyone can program a computer,” he said. “We have democratized computing in a very, very big way.”
The relationship between generative AI and programming is a controversial topic. The CEO of Stability AI, Emad Mostaque, believes that it could replace a large number of human programmers, especially in India, where, according to him, outsourced jobs in this field are at risk of disappearing next year due to AI advancements.
On the other hand, the quality of the code produced by AI is not known for its elegance. This was highlighted by a study from Purdue University last year, which found that ChatGPT made mistakes in over half of the programming questions.
On the other hand, many experts have pointed out that previous technologies have promised to eliminate a specific field, only for that technology to end up being used alongside traditional methods.
Huang added that it is important for people to learn how to use generative AI. “It is vital that we educate everyone, and I believe the training process will be delightful and surprising,” he said.
