In the latest episode of Lex Fridman’s podcast, the Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, stated that general AI has already arrived, not in the sense of a system as intelligent as humans, but rather one capable of running a business.
When will AI be as smart as humans? Some AI industry leaders believe it will take at least five years, while others think we have already achieved such a system. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang somewhat agrees with the latter. During a recent episode of Lex Fridman’s podcast on March 23, he took a middle-ground stance…
“I think we have reached general AI,” he told the podcaster. But it all depends on how one defines this term, which is generally used to describe AI as smart as humans in all areas. Not everyone appreciates this term, including French researcher Yann Le Cun, who believes it is not appropriate as human intelligence is not general, but specialized.
In the podcast, Lex Fridman simplified, defining general AI as “a system capable of doing [the] work” of Jensen Huang – “launching, developing, and managing a successful tech company”, expecting the billionaire to bet on 5 to 20 years before it becomes possible.
Leading a Business but…
However, Nvidia’s CEO nuanced his statement, referring to Openclaw, the open-source tool allowing an AI agent to take control of a computer and act autonomously. He sees this type of system, which gave rise to the Moltbook AI agent network, as the future of artificial intelligence. But while such a system might develop and manage a billion-dollar-valued company, it may not do so indefinitely.
In other words, just because Openclaw could find success through Moltbook, used by billions of people for 50 cents, doesn’t mean it is immune to failure. “We’ve seen a whole series of such companies in the internet era, and most of those websites weren’t more sophisticated than what Openclaw can output today,” justified the Nvidia CEO.
> Hence, he believes “the chances of 100,000 of these agents creating Nvidia are zero.” Nonetheless, he acknowledges that these AIs can help individuals make money, pointing to instances of this in China.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens on social networks, or someone creates a super cute digital influencer, or an app that feeds its little Tamagotchi or something like that, and it becomes an instant success,” Jensen Huang stated.
While these remarks may be surprising, they should not be taken lightly. Initially known among gamers, his company has benefited from the AI boom thanks to its superiority in graphic chip technology, well-suited for parallel computing tasks that power systems like ChatGPT. Nvidia’s market capitalization crossed $5 trillion in October last year.
However, Nvidia’s CEO didn’t wait for this revolution to bet on this technology, being one of the first to see its potential. “I realized back then that deep learning algorithms were very interesting, and scaling them up could bring significant capabilities,” he recalled to Tech&Co last June. Driven by its CEO, the global leader in AI-focused chips shows no signs of slowing down, aiming for 1,000 billion orders of these components in 2027.
