The Pulse
Jensen Huang Rejects New AI Laws as Safety Debate Widens
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told attendees at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference that AI safety should be managed through engineering, existing laws and company decisions rather than new regulations, according to TechCrunch.
AI.info Team ·
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said artificial intelligence does not need new laws or regulations, arguing that companies should manage safety through engineering decisions, existing legal frameworks and market pressure, according to TechCrunch.
TechCrunch reported that Huang made the remarks while speaking at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, September 15. Huang described AI as a technology built from hardware and software created by people. Because it is ultimately a computing system, he said, people can control it through technical work and laws that already exist.
Huang said:
“Safety is an engineering problem, not a legal one. We’re developing software after all. We’re developing computing systems after all. It’s a complicated computing system, but it’s ultimately a computing system.”
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
Huang argued that companies should decide whether a product is safe enough to release, with market forces discouraging reckless launches. He said businesses should not release products when they lack confidence in their functionality, capability or safety.
Huang’s case for company-by-company restraint
Huang said:
“If we’re not confident about the safety of the products, like all companies, like you and I, all the companies here, if you build a product or a service, and you’re not confident in its functionality, capability, or safety, then don’t release it. And so that’s a very obvious thing to do,”
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
He said businesses should set their pace based on their confidence in a product and the response they expect from customers. In his view, companies already face commercial pressure to avoid releasing systems that do not work properly or could create serious problems.
Huang also rejected the idea that speed, innovation and safety are necessarily competing goals. He said companies could pursue all three at the same time, while pausing when they believe a product is unsafe or when the company itself is no longer in control.
“But if you feel at any given point in time the company’s out of control, or the product’s not going to be safe, you know, take a pause and make sure you get it right.”
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
A business argument with commercial consequences
Huang’s position comes from the chief executive of Nvidia, a company that supplies much of the hardware used to train and run advanced AI systems. TechCrunch reported that Nvidia also makes open-source models, agents, harnesses and sandboxes.
The report noted that Huang’s commercial interests form part of the context around his opposition to new regulation. Rules that add requirements or slow development could affect the pace at which companies build and purchase AI systems, a market that has driven major demand for Nvidia’s products.
Huang said he remains highly ambitious about the opportunities created by AI.
“I’m more ambitious than ever. As a result of our ambition, and with the product productivity boost that we get from AI, the sky’s the limit for us. The sky’s the limit for our company. The sky’s the limit for every industry, for every single country.”
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
TechCrunch also pointed to examples showing why voluntary restraint can be difficult. Companies can release faulty software despite good intentions, while existing products and services can produce unintended consequences. The report referenced the 2024 CrowdStrike outage and legal disputes involving social-media harms as examples of the limits of relying only on companies to prevent damage.
Huang did not outline a specific regulatory proposal that current law cannot address. TechCrunch said existing product-liability laws could potentially apply to AI, although courts would need to test how those laws work in practice.
For now, Huang’s position is that companies should keep developing AI, decide when their systems are ready, and stop when they believe a product is unsafe. He said new laws and regulations are not necessary.