Artificial intelligence (AI) should not be feared. Instead, governments and people should benefit from it, just like they benefited from the industrial revolutions in the past.
This was the message sent across by Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, at the World Governments Summit (WGS) taking place in Dubai.
In conversation with Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Digital Economy, Artificial Intelligence and Remote Work Applications who hosted the session at WGS, the CEO of the $1.83 trillion market-cap company said the world is witnessing the beginnings of a new industrial revolution with AI applications, which requires improving and accelerating the performance of computers to keep pace with this revolution.
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Sovereign AI
Addressing the WGS session, Huang called on each country to have its own sovereign artificial intelligence system, so that it possesses the data necessary to document its history and future.
“My advice to countries is the necessity of owning their national intelligence and not to allow someone else to do it,” he said.
When asked about the advice he gives to heads of state regarding computing matters, Huang replied: “We are at the beginning of a new industrial revolution with the emergence of artificial intelligence, similar to the industrial revolutions that took place with the production of energy from steam and electricity and the emergence of computers, as well as the Internet revolution.”
“The volume of investment in data centers has reached approximately $1 trillion, a number that will multiply several times in the coming years,” pointing out that the new generation is generative artificial intelligence, which will contribute to improving and accelerating the performance of computers at the same time.
He noted: “One of the best contributions we have made is the development of computers and artificial intelligence a million-fold in the past 10 years, and therefore we have to take into account that it will be faster and more efficient.”
Development cost
Regarding the countries unable to bear the cost of this development, Huang said that “the current development calls for (democratization of technology); there are researchers from various universities working in this direction, and therefore we must harness the experience of researchers to accelerate the level of innovation, which will make the cost of buying and selling much lower.”
UAE’s AI strides
Huang said the UAE has solidified its position by incorporating the Arabic language into its developed systems and innovating a UAE-made AI model, praising the efforts of ‘Core42’ and various technology companies in the UAE.
“The first thing that every country should do is build infrastructure and not work on a specific application. If you want to develop energy, you must build generators, if you want food, you must build farms, and if you want artificial intelligence, you must build infrastructure. It is not expensive, but there are companies that want to scare everyone, while in reality there are computers that you can buy, and every country is capable of doing that.”
Regulating AI
The CEO explained that, like any new technology, regulating artificial intelligence requires developing it in a way that ensures everyone can use it safely, akin to regulating the manufacture of cars, pharmaceuticals, and all industries subject to regulation.
And he continued: “We want to democratize this technology to achieve safety and compatibility.”
AI and education
Regarding the relationship between AI and children’s education in the future, Huang commented: “You may remember the past 10 years. Everyone believed that it was necessary for children to learn computer science and how to program, and the truth is that the opposite is true; we can produce computer technology so that everyone does not have to program, and thus everyone is now a programmer and this is the miracle; many people interact with AI and every company talks about AI today, and anyone can become a scientist or expert.”
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