TITLE: AI Pioneer Andrew Ng Says Technology Is Limited, Won't Replace Humans Soon

AI Pioneer Highlights Technology's Limits Amid Hype

Artificial intelligence pioneer Andrew Ng has cautioned that while AI holds revolutionary potential, its capabilities are far more limited than often portrayed, and it will not supplant human workers in the foreseeable future.

Ng, who co-founded Google Brain — now integrated into Google's DeepMind division — and served as chief scientist at Baidu, shared these views during an interview at his AI Developers Conference in November. With decades of experience in AI research, education and investment, Ng emphasized the technology's dual nature: impressive in specific tasks but constrained by complex, labor-intensive development processes.

"The tricky thing about AI is that it is amazing and it is also highly limited," Ng said. "Understanding that balance ... that's difficult."

Skepticism on Artificial General Intelligence

Generative AI has drawn hundreds of billions in investments as tech giants pivot to the field. However, concerns about issues like factual inaccuracies, or "hallucinations," mental health risks and regulatory pressures have fueled talk of an investment bubble.

Ng remains optimistic about AI's trajectory but rejects claims of rapid progress toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), defined as AI matching human performance across all significant tasks. He contrasts with some peers who predict AGI within years.

"I look at how complex the training recipes are and how manual AI training and development is today, and there's no way this is going to take us all the way to AGI just by itself," Ng stated.

He noted that preparing data and training models for even basic language understanding requires far more effort than commonly recognized. Ng's educational ventures, including co-founding Coursera and leading DeepLearning.AI, underscore his focus on demystifying these processes.

Push for Broader Coding Adoption

Ng, a former Stanford computer science professor, challenges advice against learning to code due to AI automation fears. He likens it to misguided career counsel, arguing that AI lowers barriers, enabling more people to participate.

"As coding becomes easier ... more people should code, not fewer," he said.

Experts view coding as central to AI advancement, with tools revealing AI's prowess. While some predict the decline of traditional programming roles, Ng sees enhanced productivity.

"People that use AI to write code will just be more productive, and I think have more fun than people that don't," Ng added. "There will be a big societal shift towards people who code."

He cited examples like recruiters using AI prompts or code for resume screening, reducing manual labor while expanding access.

Balancing Risks and Benefits

As AI grows, Ng acknowledges emerging downsides, including recent suicides linked to AI interactions. Yet he argues the technology's benefits — such as mental health support — far exceed harms.

"The death of any single person is absolutely tragic," he said. "At the same time, I am nervous about one or two anecdotes leading to stifling regulations. That means it doesn't help save 10 lives."

Ng favors targeted laws promoting transparency, like California's SB 53 and New York's RAISE Act, over broad restrictions.

"If I had my druthers ... transparency of large platforms is what I will push for, because that gives us a much better chance of being able to clearly see what problems there are," he explained.

Industry Connections and Bubble Concerns

Ng's ties to AI leaders are deep: He mentored Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at Baidu, taught OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at Stanford and advised OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

Despite this, he questions the sustainability of massive investments in AI model training, the initial phase of development.

"When will the payoff for all of the capital expenses going into this training ... when will they pay off?" Ng asked, hinting at bubble risks for some firms.

He is confident, however, in surging demand for the "inference" stage, where users interact with trained models.

"Inference demand is massive, and I'm very confident inference demand will continue to grow," Ng said. "We need to build a lot more data centers to serve this demand."

Ng's perspective, informed by his roles in academia, industry and online education, positions him as a steady voice amid AI's fervor. With over 2.3 million LinkedIn followers as a "Top Voice," his influence extends to shaping public and professional understanding of the field.