Huang Rejects AI Doomsday Talk, Backs Rapid Development With Safety Checks

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has pushed back firmly against warnings that artificial intelligence could trigger an extinction-level event, saying such fears are unfounded.

In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, Huang said he rejected the idea that AI would bring about the end of the world by 2030. He put the probability of such an outcome at zero per cent. He also endorsed US President Donald Trump's view that fears about the dangers of AI amount to a hoax. Trump had weighed in on the debate with a surprise call to Huang during the latter's address at the All-In summit earlier in the week.

Huang said the claims of an impending doomsday were spreading fear across the United States and made little sense to him. He suggested the motives behind such warnings could be political, aimed at drawing attention, or intended to secure high-profile interviews, adding that he did not know the exact reason.

At the same time, Huang argued that the industry should move ahead with development as quickly as possible while keeping product safety in mind. He said companies would never ship products before they are ready or deliver unsafe products, and that the expectation is for the industry to succeed and help the United States prosper.

The debate over AI's risks has intensified after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for slowing the pace of AI model development. In an essay dated September 12, Amodei wrote that the industry must slow improvements in AI capabilities. He flagged recursive self-improvement — AI's growing ability to build the next generation of AI — as a key concern, noting it is beginning to happen across the industry, including at Anthropic. Left unchecked, he warned, it could outrun the ability to understand and control such systems, and should therefore be pursued very carefully, if at all.

Amodei's position followed the public resignation of Jacob Coxon, a researcher associated with his company, who said he was quitting the industry over fears that the firm and its competitors were racing to build systems they would not be able to control. Amodei's line of thinking has also drawn support from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google's Demis Hassabis.