In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has denied using AI makes him less smart. Huang's remarks came in response to an MIT study last month, which shared that users who relied on AI for writing essays demonstrated less brain activity across regions of the brain and were unable to use unique thinking at the end. However, Huang, who shared that he had not come across this study, commented that using AI actually improved his cognitive skills.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Says Using AI Makes Him Smarter
The gist of MIT's study indicated that users who relied on ChatGPT to write their essays ended up with lower brain activity after their third attempt. The researchers outlined that while ChatGPT essay writers did initially structure their essays and based their questions to the model on the structure, at their final attempt, they ended up simply copying and pasting the model's responses. Additionally, the ChatGPT users were also unable to recall their work and "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels."
After CNN's Fareed Zakaria questioned Huang about the study and asked him what he thought of it, the executive replied by sharing that he hadn't "looked at that research yet." However, Huang still disagreed with the research's conclusions. "I have to admit, I'm using AI literally every single day. And, and, um, I think my cognitive skills are actually advancing," he said. Commenting further, the NVIDIA added that the reason behind his skills improving was because he wasn't asking the model to think for him. Instead, "I'm asking it to teach me things that I don't know. Or help me solve problems that otherwise wouldn't be able to solve reasonably," he shared.
Huang emphasized that "you have to think" when using AI. The NVIDIA CEO dubbed asking good questions a "highly cognitive skill" and added that when he's "interacting with AI, it's a questioning system." He elaborated that in order to "formulate good questions, you have to be thinking, you have to be analytical, you have to be reasoning it yourself."
Huang doesn't simply "receive" an answer from AI. Instead, not only does he ask the model whether it's "sure this is the best answer that you can provide?" but he also cross-references the output with other models. "Usually what I do is, I say, are you sure this is the best answer that you can provide? I take the answer from one AI, I give it to the other AI, I ask them to critique itself," he said.
He believes this process "is no different than getting three opinions," which leads Huang to conclude that the process of using AI actually improves cognitive skills. "I think, that process of critiquing, criticizing, the answers, you know critical thinking, enhances cognitive skills. And so to all the people who were taking those tests, I would advise that they apply critical thinking," he concluded.
The NVIDIA CEO also had some advice for people who are starting out in the world of AI. He remarked:
"When asked what would he say to people entering the world of AI:" First of all recognizing that this technology is the most extraordinary of technologies the world has ever created, is the reason why it's created now and not a hundred years ago. The ability for us to create a computer that can be seemingly intelligent and to manufacture intelligence such as broad range of capabilities and do it at such a large scale, of course is something that is really impactful."
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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