What would tech billionaire Jensen Huang study if he went to college now?

(Dan Tri) - American billionaire Jensen Huang - CEO of the world's most valuable corporation today - said that if he were to attend university today, he would choose the major with the most potential.

Not choosing AI or programming, Jensen Huang returns to fundamental science

During a recent business trip to Beijing (China), Nvidia's CEO - Mr. Jensen Huang - frankly shared his thoughts on the most potential field of study at the moment.

Specifically, if he were a freshman at this time, Mr. Huang would choose the physical sciences - the foundation for the next wave of AI; instead of pursuing software engineering such as computer science or artificial intelligence engineering.

Mr. Huang has mentioned the concept of “physical AI” many times and predicted that this is the next wave in AI development.

Tech billionaire Jensen Huang (Photo: CNBC).

According to Mr. Huang, the development of AI has gone through three waves. The first wave is “perceptual AI” which started about 12-14 years ago, with the appearance of the AlexNet computer network structure that allows computers to recognize images using deep learning algorithms.

The second wave is “generative AI”, at this time, AI not only simply understands content, but can also create language, images, programming code...

The third wave is “rational AI,” which is the current stage where AI can reason, solve problems, and recognize situations it has never experienced before. This is the foundation for the development of AI agents — “digital workers” — that can replace humans in many tasks.

According to Mr. Huang, the fourth wave is "physical AI", at this time, AI not only processes abstract data, but also begins to grasp the basic physical laws in life such as friction, inertia, cause and effect...

“Physical AI” will be incorporated into physical entities, specifically robots, to meet diverse needs. At this time, robots will be much more advanced, able to predict movements, calculate the force needed to perform tasks, without harming the people and objects they interact with... At this time, super-intelligent robots will help solve the problem of global labor shortage.

Mr. Huang believes that “physical AI” will play a key role in building new-generation factory and industrial systems. Future factories will have a very high level of automation.

This is especially urgent when the world is facing a serious labor shortage. On that development journey, engineers who catch the wave of “physical AI” will be the “hot” personnel of the labor market in the near future.

Smart robots will change the global labor market landscape

Mr. Jensen Huang (61 years old) is running Nvidia Corporation, the company with the largest market capitalization in the world at the moment with a capital of up to 4.21 trillion USD.

In 1984, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University (USA) at the age of 20. He continued to earn a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University (USA) in 1992.

According to Mr. Huang, studying fundamental science majors such as physics, geology, chemistry... at this time will help students catch the next wave in the job market.

Mr. Huang is a technology billionaire who actively discusses the skills that young people need in today's times (Photo: CNBC).

Nowadays, programming has become much simpler, AI will gradually completely change the way of programming, making learning coding languages no longer as important as before.

He believes that in the current context, when AI is developing explosively, students need to continuously ask questions in their studies and daily lives: How can I use AI to serve my studies and organize my life?

Mr. Huang shared that if he were a student, he would pay special attention to AI. In particular, learning how to interact with AI is most important in the art of asking questions and giving the right commands.

He also revealed that he is using AI tools to learn and work every day, from text editing, programming to analyzing new knowledge. Specifically, he uses the paid version of ChatGPT and considers it as his “personal tutor”. At the same time, he uses the search engine Perplexity AI to learn more about new academic fields.

Mr. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its CEO ever since. Under his leadership, Nvidia has grown from a graphics chip maker to a global leader in the development of AI processors.

In the current context, Mr. Huang is not the only tech billionaire actively talking about the skills young people need.

CEO of Meta Corporation - billionaire Mark Zuckerberg - also said that the most important thing for young people today is the ability to think critically and build a personal value system. Mr. Zuckerberg said he recruits people based on their ability to delve into and master a specific field.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/ty-phu-cong-nghe-jensen-huang-se-hoc-nganh-gi-neu-hoc-dai-hoc-luc-nay-20250721112848170.htm