As global tech giants increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) for key processes, AI pioneer Andrew Ng urged Indian professionals across sectors to learn coding and stay ahead of the curve.
Speaking to Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 20, Ng said that while AI won’t replace people, those who know how to use it will surpass those who don’t.
"I don't think AI will replace people, but people that know how to use AI will replace people that don't," Ng, the founder of DeepLearning.AI, Managing General Partner at AI Fund and Co-Founder of Coursera, told Moneycontrol.
Ng said, "For a nation like India, what I would say is: leapfrog, leapfrog, leapfrog. The nature of work is changing, and in the future, I think almost everyone, not just software engineers, but also marketers, recruiters, and journalists, will be able to use computers much more powerfully..."
He opined that coding will be useful not just in all white-collar jobs, but also in many blue-collar professions.
"There is no practical way to slow down AI. So to anyone worried about your job, I say learn to code, take control of it, because in the future, the ability to direct computers to do exactly what you want will be one of the most important skills," he added.
Ng's comments come against the backdrop of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying that he could see AI evolving to the point where it can function as mid-level engineers, capable of writing code independently.
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"Probably in 2025, we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of midlevel engineer that you have at your company that can write code,” Zuckerberg said.
"So for example, I know how to code reasonably well, but I code much less because I get an AI to write a lot of my code. But if I didn't know how to code, I would really do much less of computers," Ng said.
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