What would Jensen Huang study if he were 20 years old again?
Nvidia’s 61-year-old CEO answered this question during a trip to Beijing on Wednesday, as reported by CNBC. Huang, who graduated from college two years early at the age of 20 and is now the CEO of the most valuable company in the world, said that the “20-year-old Jensen” would have “probably chosen more of the physical sciences” over “the software sciences.”
The physical sciences include disciplines that study non-living systems, such as physics, earth science, and chemistry. Software sciences, on the other hand, include fields like computer science and AI engineering.
Huang didn’t major in either of those areas. His LinkedIn profile shows that he graduated from Oregon State University in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He received a Master’s in the same field from Stanford University in 1992. Electrical engineers make the physical computer hardware used by software engineers and developers.
Related: Nvidia CEO Says ‘100% of Everybody’s Jobs Will Be Changed’ Due to AI
Huang did not elaborate on why he would have picked the physical sciences over software engineering, but he has stated in the past that AI equalizes software development, allowing even non-programmers to generate code. At London Tech Week last month, Huang said that everyone can write code simply by prompting AI using natural language.
“There’s a new programming language,” Huang said at the event. “This programming language is called ‘human.'”
Huang has repeated the same message before. Last year, he said that AI would take over coding, making learning programming languages optional.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrives for a press conference in Beijing earlier this week. Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images
Huang previously said that if he were in school today, the first thing he would do is “learn AI.” In a January interview on the podcast “Huge Conversations,” Huang said that students should be asking the question, “How can I use AI to do my job better?”
“Learning how to interact with AI is not unlike being someone who is really good at asking questions,” Huang said on the podcast.
He also said in the interview that he uses AI as a personal tutor to learn new things, program, write, and analyze concepts. Huang uses the $20 a month version of ChatGPT as a tutor and Perplexity’s AI search engine to learn more about subjects like biology.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was also asked what students should study. In an interview last year with Bloomberg, Zuckerberg said that the most important skill young people should embrace is thinking “critically” and “learning values.”
Zuckerberg said in the interview that he hires new people based on their demonstrated ability to dive deep into a field and master it. Zuckerberg has been on a hiring spree lately, poaching AI experts from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to build a new AI team.
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its CEO ever since. Nvidia is the biggest company in the world, with a market capitalization of $4.21 trillion at the time of writing.
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Sherin Shibu