While tech billionaire Elon Musk argues that advances in AI and robotics will render saving for retirement irrelevant, claiming that automation will lead to lower costs and abundance for everyone, another tech billionaire is pitching a very different, more believable future.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the AI boom will actually increase demand for tradespeople like plumbers and electricians, as well as steel and construction workers.
Huang said these workers could make “six-figure salaries” thanks to what he’s dubbed the “largest infrastructure build out in human history,” which he claims is already a few hundred billion dollars in.
Huang made the comments today during a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos. At the conference, Fink pressed Huang on how he sees AI reshaping the economy and the labor market.
To explain his thinking, Huang broke AI down into what he called a “five-layer cake.” Applications sit at the top, followed by AI models, cloud services, chips, and energy at the bottom. According to Huang, the real economic gains from AI will come as industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services adopt AI. But to get there, countries first need to build out the lower layers of that cake, which is where trade jobs come in.
“And so we’re talking about six-figure salaries for people who are building chip factories or computer factories or AI factories,” said Huang. “Everybody should be able to make a great living. You don’t need to have a PhD in computer science to do so.”
For everyone else, Huang pushed back on fears that AI will rapidly wipe out white-collar professions. He pointed to radiology, a field seen as especially vulnerable because AI systems are good at analyzing images. Instead of replacing radiologists, Huang said AI has helped them become more productive, see more patients, and actually increase the number of radiologists.
When asked how this applies to developing countries, Huang argued they should treat AI infrastructure the same way they treat roads and energy.
“I really believe that every country should get involved to build AI infrastructure, build your own AI, take advantage of your fundamental natural resource, which is your language and culture,” Huang said. “Develop your AI, continue to refine it, and have your national intelligence be part of your ecosystem.”
That sentiment vaguely echoed comments made by Palantir CEO Alex Karp at Davos, who said that while AI will destroy jobs in the humanities, it will still leave plenty of work for people with vocational training.
“There will be more than enough jobs for the citizens of your nation, especially those with vocational training,” Karp said. “I do think these trends really do make it hard to imagine why we should have large-scale immigration unless you have a very specialized skill.”
Huang ultimately wrapped the conversation with a call for even more investment in AI.
All of which is pretty convenient coming from someone whose wealth is tied to a company that powers one of the bottom layers of this AI cake.
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