Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI firms should self-regulate on safety, not rely on new laws

The heads of artificial intelligence (AI) firms should decide if new versions of the technology should be released, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has said in response to growing concerns about AI's threat to humans.

"We don't need new laws or regulations," Huang said. "We need companies to decide that innovation, speed and safe products, that's a false choice."

Nvidia is the biggest company in the world by valuation, with its profits having boomed as a result of rampant demand for the AI computing chips it makes.

Huang's stance on AI safety contrasts with several current and former employees of AI-focused firms who have recently expressed fears that the technology could wipe out humanity.

A post from an artificial intelligence researcher who quit AI firm Anthropic went viral last week after it claimed AI could kill all humans by the end of the decade if left unchecked.

Other AI executives and experts responded saying they agreed. Then, over the weekend, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for the pace of all AI development to slow, external and urged governments to regulate the industry.

The post was applauded by OpenAI chief exuecutive Sam Altman, co-founder of Google's DeepMind Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk, owner of social media site X and AI assistant Grok.

However, some industry figures have said the fears were overblown and were being jumped on to generate hype for the industry.

Addressing the potential dangers of AI at a salesforce conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Huang referred to current advances as "a new industrial revolution" but insisted that AI companies should be left to essentially regulate themselves.

"Safety is paramount. However, safety is an engineering problem," Huang said.

He added that if at any time a leader of an AI company lacks confidence in their product they should choose to not release it.

"That's a very obvious thing to do," Huang said. "Run as fast as you can, but if at any time you feel the institution is not in control, take a pause."

The idea of AI executives being left to entirely regulate themselves has struck some in the industry as a bad idea.

Jack Clark, an Anthropic executive and co-founder, told the BBC on Monday that leaving AI to be a "totally unregulated industry" was "rolling dice with immense risks".

Patrick Hillman, the chief business officer of Logical Intelligence, which is chaired by Yann LeCun, a sage of the AI industry, noted Tuesday how little faith people have in tech companies to do anything truly in the public interest, external.

"The only institution that Americans might trust less than Washington these days is Silicon Valley. I have worked and lived in both and I assure you both have earned this scepticism," Hillman said.

"If you believe what you are building is dangerous, show us what you are prepared to stop doing," he added.