The threat of job loss is among the most urgent topics of discussion in the present AI rush. Jensen Huang has frequently brought up this topic in interviews. He is now riding the AI wave because of the intense demand for Nvidia GPUs. According to the Nvidia CEO earlier this year, some jobs may be eliminated, but new positions will also be created. Additionally, the integration of processes will cause all current employment to alter permanently.
However, Huang believes that not all occupations would be negatively impacted by AI. Conversely, positions that are essential to creating and sustaining the extensive infrastructure of AI computing may thrive in the near future. Huang seems optimistic about two such occupations: carpenters and electricians.
“To create all of these factories, we’re going to require hundreds of thousands of people with plumbing, electrical, and carpentry skills. “Every economy’s skilled craft sector is going to experience a boom,” Huang stated in a Channel4News interview. In response to a reporter’s inquiry on the construction of computing infrastructures and AI data centers valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, he stated that because of the overwhelming need and demand, stakeholders will be increasing their investment annually. ” I expect that it will take a decade to develop AI infrastructure in the UK.” Huang cited the Industrial Revolution as an example, stating that it was a need. Therefore, there won’t be much of a difference in the AI boom and related industries.
Huang is not entirely off when he says that electricians will be needed in greater numbers to support the AI wave. The scarcity of qualified data center engineers and electricians is a pressing issue that the largest players in the AI space are well aware of. We need to build up AI data centers, and I’ve even warned Trump team members that we’re going to run out of electricians. Reuters cited BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as stating, “We just don’t have enough.” At a congressional session, Microsoft CEO Brad Smith also discussed the impending issue.
Smith stated that the lack of qualified electricians and pipefitters, who are essential for power system installation, maintenance, and construction, is “possibly the single biggest challenge for data center expansion in the United States.” The Center for Strategic and International Studies states that in order to meet the demands of AI infrastructure, the United States will need to increase the number of electricians on hand, which would involve more than just upskilling.
As per the CSIS report, increasing instructional capacity, updating facilities, enhancing retention, and filling in immigration and licensing shortages are all necessary to meet the projected need for 140,000 additional skilled positions by 2030. The scarcity is so severe that Google has even started a program that will support the electrical training ALLIANCE (etA) with millions of dollars to train 100,000 electrical workers and 30,000 new apprentices in the United States specifically to meet the need for AI infrastructure.
Just hype, or also substance?
Even while the firm is making significant investments across the board, including a $100 billion investment in OpenAI, Huang takes a fairly balanced stance in the discussion of AI’s potential to destroy employment, which is far different from the pessimistic assessment of many experts. Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, reportedly asserted that artificial intelligence will “replace literally half of all the white-collar workers in the US.”Recently, Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, made a similar terrifying forecast in an interview that Axios described as a “white-collar bloodbath.” A similar dire scenario is being warned of by Amazon, one of the largest companies in the AI and cloud infrastructure space.
In a recent letter to staff, Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, stated that we will require fewer people to perform some of the tasks that are being performed now. The difficult decision between using AI technologies and hiring human staff has already begun for several large tech companies. In a recent internal communication, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke stated that teams must explain why they are unable to use AI to accomplish their goals before requesting additional headcount and resources.
Accenture fired off a staggering 11,000 workers a few weeks ago, and the CEO issued a warning that the company will fire anyone who refused to adopt AI and improve their skills. In addition, Huang’s attention leans more toward the AI awareness scenario than the rough replacement idea. The CEO of Nvidia has boldly asserted that AI will immediately impact every function, and he is also placing a large wager on the convergence of AI and quantum computing. But he also said that while AI won’t eliminate employment directly, those who are skilled with AI technologies would replace them.
