Nvidia CEO and Trump fan Jensen Huang is someone who really needs artificial intelligence to grow and grow and grow. His company is one of the main providers of the hardware needed to run the data centers and computers powering most AI systems and services. So it’s not surprising that he doesn’t seem to be bothered by the idea that AI is rotting brains, making kids forget basic math, and even seemingly making him forget his own phone number and address.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Huang was presented with research out of China showing that AI tools help kids get homework done faster, but that same research seemed to show that any skills the work was meant to impart weren’t actually sticking, so their performance on quizzes and tests was degrading rapidly. Jensen agreed that this lack of retention was likely happening to many kids using AI, but he wasn’t worried.
“Try to get a kid to do long division right now,” said Huang. “The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter? I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.”
When the interviewer pointed out that there must be some skills that matter, Huang agreed, but wondered if basic math was one of those skills, suggesting we are going to “discover new ones.” He then admitted that because of his own use of AI and other tech, he doesn’t know his own home address and telephone number.
“There are a lot of skills that don’t matter,” said Huang.
“My first confession: I actually don’t know my address. It’s completely true…[my wife] Lori will tell you. One day I had to pump gas—it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.”
Huang further suggested that, sure, AI might lead to people losing some “finer intellectual dexterity,” but don’t you worry, folks. We’re all going to become better “systems thinkers.”
I don’t know what that means and Huang’s word-vomit response, which went on for 230 words, didn’t really help. So I’ll just assume a systems thinker is someone who will be completely screwed in any situation where their phone is dead and they’re forced to interact with another person who needs to know their address or phone number. They will also be people who apparently not only can’t do basic math, but likely won’t even be able to explain to you how their chatbot arrives at the conclusion that 4 x 3 = 12. I can’t see anything bad about that being the future!