Jensen Huang Tells Graduates: AI Won't Replace You, But Those Who Use It Will

Source: Quantum Bit

Old Huang is a doctor again.

At Carnegie Mellon University’s most recent commencement, the leader was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology and delivered a speech to over 5,800 graduates in the rain.

P.S. This is already his seventh honorary doctorate.

As the leading force behind the global AI wave, he made a statement destined to go viral: "AI won't replace you, but someone who uses AI effectively will."

This remark struck a nerve with the young people in the audience, as they were facing precisely the most anxious job market in recent years—AI浪潮 sweeping through Silicon Valley, major companies continuously laying off workers, and the difficulty for U.S. graduates to find jobs reaching a four-year high.

Many young people are beginning to seriously wonder: Will what I’m learning become obsolete soon?

This emotion is easy to sense on-site. The graduation ceremony was, of course, still lively, but beyond the excitement, uncertainty about the future was almost visible on many people’s faces.

Yet, the man at the forefront of this AI wave has made the opposite assessment in the face of this anxiety that seems to permeate the entire tech industry:

I can't imagine any other era being more suited than this one to launch your life's work.

This may sound a bit like motivational fluff, but with Old Huang, it’s hard not to believe it—at least a little—because finding and seizing opportunities amid adversity has been his lifelong reality.

Moved to the U.S. at age 9 with no English skills; his mother woke him at 4 a.m. to deliver newspapers. Later, he worked while earning a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. At 30, he founded a company whose first product failed, nearly driving the business to bankruptcy. At his lowest point, he flew to Japan to apologize to Sega’s CEO, securing the opportunity that allowed NVIDIA to survive… until he became the leader of a trillion-dollar empire.

So when someone like this shouts “So run, don’t walk” to the Class of 2026, perhaps it’s more than just motivational fluff.

Below is the full transcript of Jensen Huang's speech.

(Opening statement)

Dear President, Board Members, Faculty, Distinguished Guests, Proud Parents, and most importantly, the Class of 2026 graduates of Carnegie Mellon University. It is profoundly meaningful to stand here and accept this extraordinary honor. CMU is among the world’s leading universities and one of the very few institutions capable of truly shaping the future.

Today is not only the day your dreams come true, but also the day your families, teachers, mentors, and friends see their dreams fulfilled. Before looking ahead, take a moment to thank them. Graduates, please rise, turn to your mothers, and wish them a happy Mother’s Day. Seeing you graduate from this great institution is also a moment when their dreams come true.

Alright, please have a seat.

CMU students really are like robots—they only execute one instruction at a time (laughing).

My parents are also deeply proud of me; my journey is their journey, and I am the living proof that their dreams have come true. Like many in the audience, I am a first-generation immigrant. My father had always dreamed of making a home in the United States, so when I was nine, he sent my brother and me to America. We eventually settled at a Baptist boarding school in Oneida, Kentucky—a small coal-mining town of just a few hundred people. Two years later, my parents sacrificed everything to join us in the United States.

My father was a chemical engineer, and my mother worked as a housekeeper at a Catholic school. She woke me up at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and my brother helped me get my first job—washing dishes at S Restaurant. At the time, I thought this was a major leap in my career. That’s how I saw America: not necessarily easy, but full of opportunity.

I later attended Oregon State University, where I met my wife, Lori, at age 17. I was the youngest student on campus, and she was a 19-year-old “older girl”; we were lab partners in our sophomore year. In the end, I won her heart over the other 250 guys in class. Today, we’ve been married for 40 years, and our two children both work at NVIDIA.

At age 30, I co-founded NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. We wanted to create an entirely new kind of computer to solve problems that ordinary computers couldn’t handle. Back then, I simply thought, “How hard could it be?” It turned out to be extremely difficult.

Our first technology simply didn’t work, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. I had to fly to Japan to confess to Sega’s CEO that we couldn’t deliver the technology promised in the contract and beg them to still pay us, or NVIDIA would go under. It was one of the most embarrassing, humiliating, and difficult things I’ve ever done. And Sega’s CEO agreed.

I learned that the essence of a CEO is not power, but the responsibility to ensure the company’s survival. Humility and honesty often inspire generosity and kindness. With that money, we revived the company and invented a new chip design methodology in our darkest hour—one that we still use today.

Over the past 33 years, NVIDIA has continuously reinvented itself. Every time we asked, “How hard could this be?”, the answer was always, “Harder than we imagined.” But these experiences taught us to never view failure as the opposite of success—failure is simply another moment to learn, build character, and strengthen resilience.

Today, I am one of the longest-serving CEOs in the technology industry. NVIDIA, and everything I have built with my 45,000 outstanding colleagues, has been my life’s work. Now, it’s your turn. You are entering the world at the perfect time.

My career began at the dawn of the PC revolution, while yours began with the AI revolution. I can’t imagine a more exciting time than this one.

In fact, many of AI’s origins trace back to CMU. Over the past 24 hours, I’ve heard countless AI jokes (laughing). But CMU is truly one of the birthplaces of artificial intelligence and robotics. As early as the 1950s, researchers here developed the Logic Theorist—widely regarded as the world’s first AI program. In 1979, CMU established the Robotics Institute. This morning, I even visited the Robo Club, the world’s first academic institution dedicated to robotics.

Today, AI has fully emerged from the lab and is reshaping the entire computing industry. I have witnessed nearly every major computing platform shift: mainframes, PCs, the internet, mobile devices, and cloud computing. Each wave built upon the one before it, making technology more accessible and profoundly transforming society. But what is about to happen next will far surpass any previous transformation, because computing itself is being redefined.

For the past 60 years, the fundamental model of computing has remained unchanged: humans write software, and computers execute instructions. But now, this era has ended. AI has transformed the entire computing paradigm—from “human programming” to “machine learning”; from CPUs executing software to GPUs running neural networks; from “executing commands” to “understanding, reasoning, planning, and using tools.”

A brand-new industry is emerging: the mass production of intelligence. Because intelligence will become the infrastructure of all future industries.

Every industry will change as a result, causing many to feel uneasy. They see AI writing code, generating images, and driving cars, and begin to worry: Will jobs disappear? Will humans be replaced? Will technology get out of control?

In fact, every major technological revolution has been accompanied by similar anxieties. But history also shows that when society embraces technology with an open, responsible, and optimistic attitude, the eventual expansion of human capabilities often far outweighs the parts that are diminished.

Of course, we must also remain vigilant. AI is one of the most powerful technologies in human history, offering immense promise alongside real risks. Therefore, our generation’s responsibility is not only to advance AI, but to advance it the right way. Scientists and engineers must simultaneously focus on capability and safety; policymakers must establish sensible regulations that protect society without stifling innovation and exploration.

History has shown that societies which reject technology out of fear cannot stop progress—they merely lose the opportunity to participate in shaping the future and benefiting from it. Therefore, instead of teaching young people to fear the future, we should teach them to build it with responsibility, optimism, and ambition.

In the past, only a tiny number of people in the world could code; now, anyone can use AI to create things. A small shop owner can build their own website; a carpenter can use AI to design a kitchen layout; many tasks that once required professional engineers are now within reach of ordinary people. Code is being generated by AI. In a sense, everyone is becoming a programmer today.

For the first time in human history, computation and intelligence have a real opportunity to become accessible to everyone, thereby bridging the technological divide. Just as the electricity revolution and the internet revolution required massive infrastructure development, AI likewise demands large-scale infrastructure. In the future, the United States will build numerous chip factories, supercomputer plants, data centers, and advanced manufacturing facilities. This is not only a technological revolution but also an opportunity for reindustrialization.

Electricians, plumbers, steelworkers, construction workers, technicians—your era is also dawning. AI is not only creating a new computing industry but also ushering in a new industrial age.

Of course, AI will transform all jobs. Some roles will disappear, and many tasks will be automated. But "tasks" are not the same as "the meaning of work." AI can automatically generate code, but software engineers remain essential because they use AI to solve more complex problems; AI can assist in medical image analysis, but radiologists are still crucial because they are ultimately responsible for diagnosing diseases and caring for patients.

AI will not replace human purpose; it will amplify human capabilities. So, rather than saying “AI will replace you,” it’s more accurate to say that people who use AI more effectively may replace you. Therefore, the real question we should be asking is: Do we want our children to be empowered by AI, or left behind by those who already master it? The answer is clear. Thus, we must develop AI safely while also encouraging more people to engage with it.

AI shouldn't belong only to those who can code—it should belong to everyone.

Graduates of the class of 2026, you stand at the dawn of an extraordinary era—an emerging new age of science and discovery. AI will accelerate the expansion of human knowledge, helping us solve problems once thought unsolvable.

We have the opportunity to bridge the technological divide and give billions of people true access to computing and intelligence for the first time; to drive reindustrialization and rebuild the capacity to build; and to create a future that is more prosperous, more powerful, and more hopeful than the world you inherited.

No generation has ever had stronger tools and broader opportunities than you do. And now, all of us stand on the same starting line. This is your moment to shape everything that comes next. So run, don’t walk.

Finally, I’d like to end with a quote from CMU that I deeply love: My heart is in the work.

So, truly invest your heart in your work and create something worthy of your education, your potential, and the people who believed in you long before the world ever did.

Congratulations to you. Congratulations to the entire Class of 2026 from CMU.

One More Thing

Old Huang, who only holds a master’s degree, is now being urgently awarded honorary doctorates by universities worldwide.

Including this one from CMU, I’m almost able to fill a whole row (doge).

In today’s context, this is not surprising at all. Since the AI era, it has become almost a routine for universities worldwide to invite tech CEOs to deliver commencement speeches and ceremoniously bestow them with doctoral robes.

The logic behind it isn't complicated. On one hand, schools want to enhance their influence by associating with industry leaders; on the other hand, they need figures who embody the spirit of the times to represent the "future" that graduates are about to enter.

And Lao Huang is undoubtedly one of the most unique among them.

After all, someone who rose from a dishwasher to lead a $5 trillion empire naturally carries more weight in their words.

And finally, as always, when you see him next, don’t forget to say:

Dr. Huang.