Every job will be impacted by AI, Nvidia CEO tells Milken

The Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills brought together thousands of billionaires, dealmakers, and CEOs to discuss the transformative power of artificial intelligence, with participants sharply divided between AI optimists and those genuinely concerned about the technology's social and economic fallout. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking to a packed audience on Monday, declared that "everybody's job will be impacted" by AI while expressing worry that fearmongering could make the technology unpopular in the United States. Meanwhile, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet told the Great Place to Work For All Summit in Las Vegas that Corporate America is increasing AI investments but struggling to translate those dollars into measurable operational transformation, prompting her company to restructure its operating model and tie employee promotions to AI proficiency. BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink threw his weight behind the AI camp at Milken, suggesting that supply constraints for electricity and computing power will soon make it possible to trade futures contracts on compute power. "There is not an AI bubble. We have supply shortages," Fink said. Former Trump administration official and IBM vice-chairman Gary Cohn argued that national security considerations outweigh any near-term disruption concerns, stating, "We have to win at this." However, CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost, overseeing US$621-billion for 2.3 million members, voiced "pretty grave concerns about disruption of people," while Morgan Stanley co-president Daniel Simkowitz said social issues "scare me the most," questioning where demand will come from if unemployment rises significantly. Brookfield Corp. CEO Bruce Flatt offered a synthesizing perspective at the conference, estimating that US$10-trillion or more will be spent "rewiring the world," calling it "probably the most fundamental thing going on." "Is it too much hype? Yes, there's always too much hype in some different thing. But we're just rewiring the world, and there's going to be enormous investment," he said. Canada's government is seeking to replicate the Milken conference's hothouse investment atmosphere with its own Canada Investment Summit scheduled for mid-September in Toronto, with invitations sent to more than 100 CEOs from leading asset managers and sovereign wealth funds.