AI means that everyone can now be a programmer, says Nvidia boss

TAIPEI, May 29 (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence means anyone can now be a computer programmer as all they have to do is talk to the computer, Nvidia Corp ( NVDA.O ) Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said on Monday, hailing the end of “digital divide”.

Nvidia has risen to become the world̵[ads1]7;s most valuable publicly traded semiconductor company as a major supplier of artificial intelligence chips and computing systems.

The company last week forecast second-quarter revenue more than 50% above Wall Street estimates and said it is ramping up supply to meet growing demand for its artificial intelligence chips, which are used to power ChatGPT and many similar services.

Speaking to thousands of people at the Computex forum in Taipei, Huang, who was born in southern Taiwan before his family emigrated to the US when he was a child, said AI was leading a computing revolution.

“There is no doubt that we are in a new computer age,” he said in a speech, occasionally slipping into words in Mandarin or Taiwanese to the delight of the audience.

“Every single computing time, you could do different things that weren’t possible before, and artificial intelligence certainly qualifies,” Huang added.

“The programming barrier is incredibly low. We’ve closed the digital divide. Everyone’s a programmer now — you just have to say something to the computer,” he said.

“The speed of progress, because it’s so easy to use, is why it’s growing so quickly. This is going to touch literally every industry.”

Nvidia’s chips have helped companies such as Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) add human-like chat capabilities to search engines such as Bing.

Huang demonstrated what AI could do, including getting a program to write a short pop song praising Nvidia with just a few words of instruction.

He unveiled several new applications, including a partnership with the world’s largest advertising group WPP ( WPP.L ) for generative AI-enabled content for digital advertising.

Nvidia has struggled to meet demand for its AI chips, with Tesla Inc TSLA.O CEO Elon Musk, who is reportedly building an artificial intelligence startup, last week telling an interviewer that the graphics processing units (GPUs) are “significantly more difficult to get than drugs”.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Jason Neely

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