Nvidia CEO talks about the future of AI. 'We will need three computers... One to create the AI... One to simulate the AI... And one to run it'

Nvidia's Jen Hsun Huang sat with Wired at this year's Siggraph conference for an hour long chat about Nvidia, RTX and AI. Among the varied topics touched upon, including a recognition that AI training and inference have huge energy demands, was Huang's assertion that more computers are going to be needed for AI systems in the future--specifically, three times more.

Siggraph, an annual conference that normally focuses on computer graphics and technology involving interactivity (think VR and AR), was bound to become the main topic for discussion. Lauren Goode, Wired's editor-in-chief, interviewed Nvidia's chief executive officer for an hour long streamed conversation that covered GPUs and ray tracing but mostly AI.

If you've kept up with Nvidia and its push for generative artificial intelligence to be everywhere, there's not much in the discussion to pique your curiosity. Huang did mention at one point that the world of AI has moved on from its pioneering phase to the next, which Nvidia CEO called the "enterprise waves."

Huang describes the "physical wave" as "really, truly quite extraordinary." He clarified this statement by saying that three computers would be needed: one to create the AI; another to simulate and refine it; and a third to run the AI.

It's a three-computer problem. You know, it's a three-body problem and so complicated that we created three computer to do that.

Jen-Hsun, of course, is referring to Nvidia's raft hardware and software packages. From its DGX H100 server to create the AI to Jetsen embedded computer to simulate the AI to workstations and servers that use Omniverse and RTX graphics cards to run the AI.

Siggraph has been one of my favorite tech events for years. I've watched presentations and read research papers presented there. I think it's a shame that Nvidia made a very blatant pitch for its AI system this year. Huang's conversation with Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is another example of AI promotion without substance. And although there will be plenty of discussions about computer graphics and AI will be a natural part of that discussion, Huang did not say anything that made you think "Wow! This is going to be really cool!"

Do we really need 3 computers? PC gamers and most businesses will not need three computers. Even those who want to integrate AI into their core business operations may be put off by the cost and complexity involved in using and paying for Nvidia products.

Nvidia has clearly shifted its focus to AI. It is no longer a graphics/gaming company, even though it was a core business when it evolved into a data processing one. It's not that PC gamers won't be able to benefit from Nvidia’s technological advancements in AI. After all, DLSS and RTX have been a major step forward in rendering.

I wouldn't expect the CEO at the world's largest AI company to or not push artificial intelligence at every business opportunity, but I think that we could all use a break from the relentless push towards artificial intelligence infiltrating every aspect of our computing life. It gets a little tiresome after a while.