NVIDIA CEO says the future of coding as a career might already be dead in the water with the imminent prevalence of AI

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
(Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What you need to know

  • While at the World Government Summit in Dubai, NVIDIA's CEO stated that coding is no longer a viable career for the young generation who might want to venture into tech with the rapid growth and adoption of AI across every sector.
  • He recommended that they should lean more toward biology, education, manufacturing, or farming instead.
  • The CEO added that upskilling might help some professionals in the coding landscape retain their relevance as they'll have vast knowledge regarding AI programming.

Generative AI might be well on its way to rendering more jobs obsolete. While speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang indicated that we might potentially be looking at the death of coding as a career (via Tom's Hardware). 

The CEO attributed these sentiments to the rapid advances and adoption of AI. Huang added that learning code shouldn't be considered a priority for anyone looking to get into tech moving forward.

Huang might be on to something. Over the past few months, multiple users have achieved incredible feats using ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, from developing software in under 7 minutes to generating free Windows keys.

Additionally, chatbots are getting exceptionally good at natural language processing, which means we might get to a point where we can generate code perfectly using these tools. Huang says that we might even get to a point where we can use our native language to code.

According to Huang:

"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." 

NVIDIA's lead further indicated that users interested in coding should consider channeling this energy and dedicating it to other sectors, including farming, biology, manufacturing, and education. Coding isn't entirely dead in the water either; this is because some skills will still be required to determine when and where to use AI programming. 

Huang added that upskilling might be the way around this imminent change in the tech landscape. Upskilling will future-proof professionals by equipping them with the knowledge on how to go about AI programming,

As this happens, GitHub recently unveiled GitHub Copilot Enterprise. It's an AI assistant designed to help users generate code suggestions, answer queries, and summarize changes based on the organization's internal code and knowledge base. The service is available to users via a monthly subscription of $39. 

AI claims more jobs from professionals

(Image credit: Future | Image Creator by Designer)

The rapid growth and adoption of generative AI across the globe in the past few years has been quite fascinating. The emerging technology has presented new avenues to exploit and leverage opportunities across various landscapes, including computing, education, medicine, and more. 

And while this is impressive, multiple users have expressed their reservations about AI. This can be predominantly attributed to the lack of elaborate safeguards and guardrails to prevent it from spiraling out of control. Not to mention the privacy and deepfakes issues. But what might be an immediate concern for people is the security of their jobs with the prevalence of technology. 

As we speak, generative AI is already in the process of rendering some professions obsolete. This is especially true for architectural jobs. Even though AI-powered tools like Image Creator from Designer (Bing Image Creator) have been lobotomized, they are certainly good enough to render graphic designers and architects redundant

Chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are running on the latest LLM, GPT-4, coupled with DALL-E 3 image generation technology. This means they can handle complex and detailed queries better (though this doesn't necessarily mean they are perfect).

Kevin Okemwa
Contributor

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You'll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.

  • Kevin Okemwa
    Are concerned about AI potentially taking over your job in your respective field?
    Reply
  • Bla1ze
    Kevin Okemwa said:
    Are concerned about AI potentially taking over your job in your respective field?

    Not at this point. It makes far too many mistakes and needs to be vetted for all sorts of things before public consumption. Also, in my experience with using it for coding purposes so far, it hasn't been bang on. If anything, it's a tool to enable my coding skills further and send me down the right path but it's not a set it and forget it thing.
    Reply
  • naddy69
    "NVIDIA CEO says the future of coding as a career might already be dead in the water with the imminent prevalence of AI".

    LOL. Dream on. This is a CEO who obviously knows nothing about programming/coding.

    Nothing wrong with that, since being a CEO is a way different skill set than being a programmer. But this is like me announcing "A programmer says the future of CEO as a career might already be dead in the water with the imminent prevalence of AI".

    :rolleyes:
    Reply
  • fjtorres5591
    naddy69 said:
    "NVIDIA CEO says the future of coding as a career might already be dead in the water with the imminent prevalence of AI".

    LOL. Dream on. This is a CEO who obviously knows nothing about programming/coding.

    Nothing wrong with that, since being a CEO is a way different skill set than being a programmer. But this is like me announcing "A programmer says the future of CEO as a career might already be dead in the water with the imminent prevalence of AI".

    :rolleyes:
    Yup.
    He seems to forget there are many kinds of coders.

    AI *will* reduce the *growth* in jobs for gruntwork coders who might fill out a flow chart with canned routines and objects or do line by line debugging but the creative side of coding is in no danger. If nothing else, somebody has to tell the LLM *what* code to spit out.
    Reply