‘If you’re not confident... don’t release it’: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang on how companies should take responsibility for AI safety

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined the AI slowdown debate, saying the industry does not need new laws or regulations to govern AI. Speaking at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, Huang revealed that he sees AI as technology that combines hardware and software, created by humans. He says that if humans build AI, they can also control it.

“Safety is an engineering problem, not a legal one,” he said. “We’re developing software after all. We’re developing computing systems after all. It’s a complicated computing system, but it’s ultimately a computing system.” He further argues that the existing laws and regulations are enough to govern AI, and a separate regulatory framework for AI is not necessary. 

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Huang also sheds light on AI labs building powerful AI models, and how they should be responsible for ensuring their products are safe before releasing them. “If we’re not confident about the safety of the products, like all companies, like you and I, all the companies here, if you build a product or a service, and you’re not confident in its functionality, capability, or safety, then don’t release it,” he said. 

He continued, saying that AI companies must regulate their own pace based on whether their products are safe and ready. “The market forces are already there. We don’t need any new laws. We don’t need new regulations. We just need companies to decide that when [to] run as fast as they can,” he said. He also said that if a company feels its AI development is becoming uncontrollable or a product isn't safe, it should pause, fix the problems, and then continue.

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Amid concerns and risk claims, Huang’s statement comes as a reassurance that AI is ultimately technology built by humans and can therefore be controlled. On the other hand, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also follows a similar approach in the ongoing debate, saying that AI labs must strengthen safeguards and build more aligned models.

“My view is that trust and alignment are quickly becoming the most important capabilities that will differentiate agents and models. Any lab that doesn't focus on alignment will fall behind,” Zuckerberg said.