AI and the Next Generation Computing Platform – Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg – Watch on YouTube
SIGGRAPH is an annual conference that discusses the latest trends and research in computer graphics and interactive technology, but the CEOs of Nvidia and Meta somewhat ignored the brief, spending an hour discussing all things AI, including generative systems, smart glasses, and some rather bizarre anecdotes.
It’s no secret that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is pretty obsessed with the metaverse, augmented reality, and AI — the company has spent billions on VR and bought about 350,000 Nvidia H100 superchips to power its servers — so it’s no surprise that he and Jensen Huang have a lot to talk about.
But this rambling chat clearly lacked focus, and if you’re looking for help with your insomnia, I wholeheartedly recommend sitting through the video of the streamed discussion above.
For example, the two CEOs wistfully spoke about using generative AI to create pretty photos, with Huang saying it was “really cool” to use and that the prompt “older Chinese man enjoying a whiskey with his three dogs” generated “a pretty good looking photo.” It was clear he was poking fun at himself, but it wasn’t a gripping story at all.
Zuckerberg briefly promoted Meta’s Segment Anything Model 2, an AI system that can select and track any object in an image or video, with footage of cows walking on a farm. “I think these are cows from my farm in Hawaii,” Zuckerberg said, before Huang interjected, “They’re called Delicious Marks Cow,” and the audience went completely silent.
Jokes about the pair cooking Philadelphia cheesesteaks, and even one in which Zuckerberg claimed he was just a sous chef and that it wasn’t his fault for not cutting and arranging the tomatoes as Huang requested, failed to elicit much of a reaction from the audience.
I know this sounds like I’m being overly harsh. The CEOs may have a cordial friendship, but the somewhat pushy relationship between the two good guys was not well received. Perhaps the audience was hoping for more insight and discussion about current trends in AI and how it will impact computer graphics – the purpose of SIGGRAPH.
As the event went on, I began to feel more and more sympathy for the two of them, especially Jensen Huang, who was trying his best to make the discussion engaging and fun. After a brief lull in the audience, when Huang expressed his gratitude for Zuckerberg’s comments that NVIDIA has contributed greatly to making AI a reality, laughter and applause erupted, and Zuckerberg smiled and responded to the audience, saying, “We’re CEOs and we’re delicate flowers. We need something in return.”
Whatever you think about Nvidia, you can’t say its CEO lacks self-awareness, but there’s no doubt that making billions of dollars in profits every year is all the “help” Huang really wants.
