Huang Renxun was invited to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Edison Electric Institute (EEI) annual meeting in the United States. On the 18th, he had a conversation with the chairman of the association, Pedro J. Pizarro. The attendees were managers from the US public utilities and energy industry.
In his speech, Huang Renxun shared his life experiences and discussed the impact and future prospects of AI on the energy industry, as well as the potential problems that may arise. When asked what advice he would give to his younger self if he were to 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 brave, emphasizing the importance of rebelling and pursuing a broader perspective while staying true to oneself.
He mentioned that he was fortunate to have understood early on how to maintain an advantage in entrepreneurship and attract talented people to work with him. This has been an ongoing advantage for NVIDIA, as he always works with the most outstanding individuals.
Regarding how to retain these talented young people, Huang Renxun believes that transparency within the company is crucial. Information should not be simplified when circulated among different positions to avoid important information being overlooked, ensuring 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 challenges in energy reserves. In response to this, Huang Renxun 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 among the public, and power supply will shift to a peer-to-peer trading platform, becoming a sharing economy business model. The government will be responsible for maintaining transaction fairness and managing the platform, playing a coordinating role similar to the App Store, which integrates all products.
Huang Renxun used Uber as an example, highlighting the importance of platforms when it comes to connecting passengers and drivers in the business. Similarly, when someone wants to sell their surplus stored electricity to their neighbors, public utilities platforms will play a coordinating role in the operation.
In conclusion, Huang Renxun also addressed many challenges raised by AI, such as human safety and negative impacts. He believes that cybersecurity is a top priority. Through AI learning and detection, hackers can accelerate their penetration of service providers’ systems. However, on the other hand, the defense side can also use the same principle to simulate the attacking paths of hackers and establish more robust and unexpected defense systems.
He also believes that this concept can be expanded to national security issues. If governments regulate too early due to risks without recognizing the defensive capabilities brought by AI, it may lead to negative consequences.
Currently, Huang Renxun believes that every country is developing its own AI program, which is the right path. From the perspective of national security, every country should develop its own sovereign AI for defense.