Nvidia CEO rings alarm on IT jobs, says with AI no one will require Java or C to do coding

When OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT in November 2022, people were left amazed by its capabilities. From asking it to compose music and poetry to using it to debug and write code, people found all sorts of uses for the AI chatbot. With ChatGPT, the popularity of generative AI reached new heights and companies like Google and Microsoft also shortly unveiled their own chatbots, Bard (now Gemini) and Bing.

Many have been hailing AI as the future. Prominent figures of the tech world like Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, and Sam Altman, among others, have earlier weighed in on AI's potential impact on job markets, underscoring its significance. While some tech experts believe that AI will lead to job losses in the IT sector, others feel that it will create more opportunities.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also feels that AI will impact the job market and says that kids need not learn coding as with this emerging technology, anybody can be a programmer.

A video of the Nvidia CEO has surfaced online in which he can be seen speaking at an event. He says that about a decade back, people used to say that everybody need to learn coding. But now, the scenario is the complete opposite, as with AI, everybody is a programmer. He also added that kids don't need to learn how to code and that our job is to create a technology so that the language of programming is human. In other words, coding languages like C++ or Java shouldn't be needed anymore as the computer should understand what people are trying to say.

He says, "Over the last 10-15 years, almost everybody who sits on a stage like this would tell you that it is vital that your children learn computer science, everybody should learn how to program. In fact, it is almost exactly the opposite. 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 AI."

He then added, "You now have a computer that will do what you tell it to do. It is vital that we upskill everyone and the upskilling process will be delightful and surprising."

John Carmack, former CTO Oculus VR, and the founder of Id Software and Armadillo Aerospace also agrees with Huang. "Coding was never the source of value, and people shouldn’t get overly attached to it. Problem solving is the core skill. The discipline and precision demanded by traditional programming will remain valuable transferable attributes, but they won’t be a barrier to entry," he said in a post quoting Huang's video. "I suspect that I will enjoy managing AIs more, even if they wind up being better programmers than I am," he added.

This isn't the first time that the Nvidia chief has talked about AI's pervasive influence across industries. As one of the largest chipmakers globally, Nvidia played a crucial role in the development of ChatGPT, which utilised thousands of Nvidia GPUs.

Last year, while addressing a gathering at the Computex forum in Taiwan, Huang had declared the end of the 'digital divide.' He highlighted the emergence of a new computing era, where AI enables feats previously deemed impossible. Huang emphasised the accessibility of programming in today's landscape, asserting that virtually anyone can become a programmer by simply interacting with computers.

Huang had said back then, "The programming barrier is incredibly low. We have closed the digital divide. Everyone is a programmer now - you just have to say something to the computer."

Underlining AI's rapid advancement, Huang attributed its growth to its user-friendliness. He had predicted AI's widespread integration into every industry, marking a significant transformation in the technological landscape.