Huang Renxun was invited to be the keynote speaker at this year’s annual meeting of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) in the United States. On the 18th, he had a discussion with the association’s chairman, Pedro J. Pizarro. The attendees were managers from the American public utilities and energy industry.
In his speech, Huang Renxun shared his life experiences and discussed the impact and future prospects of AI in the energy industry, as well as the potential issues that may arise. When asked what advice he would give to his younger self if he could go back to the age of 30, Huang Renxun said he would encourage young people to “go further.” In other words, he urged young people to be unconventional and courageous, and not only be true to themselves but also to be more adventurous and pursue broader perspectives.
He mentioned that he was very fortunate to have understood early on how to maintain an advantage in entrepreneurship and attract excellent people to work with him. This has been a continuous advantage for NVIDIA. “I’m very lucky to always work with the best people,” he said.
Regarding how to retain these excellent young talents, Huang Renxun believes that transparency within the company is crucial. Information should not be simplified when it circulates among different positions, in order to avoid important information being overlooked and to ensure that every employee has the necessary details to complete their work.
With the advent of the AI era and the backdrop of the computational power race, global energy consumption is expected to continue to increase. Humanity will face the challenge of energy reserves. In response to this challenge, Huang Renxun also shared his new ideas. He believes that future energy production will not be limited to traditional centralized power generation.
There may be buying and selling of redundant power reserves in the private sector, and power supply will transition into a peer-to-peer trading platform, becoming a business model of the sharing economy. The government will be responsible for maintaining transaction fairness and managing the platform, playing a role in coordinating operations, similar to the App Store that integrates all products.
Huang Renxun used Uber as an example, highlighting the importance of the platform when connecting passengers and drivers. Similarly, when someone wants to sell their surplus stored electricity to their neighbors, the platform of the public utility will play a role in coordinating operations.
In his concluding remarks, Huang Renxun also addressed the challenges posed by AI, such as human safety and negative effects. He believes that cybersecurity is the most pressing issue. Through AI learning and detection, hackers can accelerate their infiltration of service providers’ systems. On the other hand, the defense side can also use this principle to develop more sophisticated and unexpected defense systems by simulating the attacking paths of adversaries.
In addition to the business sector, he also believes that this can be extended to national security issues. If the government regulates too early due to perceived risks without recognizing the defensive capabilities brought by AI, negative results can also arise.
In the current situation, he believes that every country is developing its own AI program, and this approach is correct. From a national security perspective, each country should develop its own sovereign AI for defense purposes.