Nvidia chief calls AI ‘the greatest equalizer' – but warns Europe risks falling behind
PARIS (AP) — Will artificial intelligence save humanity — or destroy it? Lift up the world's poorest — or tighten the grip of a tech elite?
Jensen Huang, the global chip tycoon, offered his opinion on Wednesday: neither dystopia nor domination. AI, he said, is a tool for liberation.
Wearing his signature biker jacket and mobbed by fans for selfies, the Nvidia CEO cut the figure of a tech rockstar as he took the stage at VivaTech in Paris.
'AI is the greatest equalizer of people the world has ever created,' Huang said, kicking off one of Europe's biggest technology industry fairs.
But beyond the sheeny optics, Nvidia used the Paris summit to unveil a wave of infrastructure announcements across Europe, signaling a dramatic expansion of the AI chipmaker's physical and strategic footprint on the continent.
In France, the company is deploying 18,000 of its new Blackwell chips with startup Mistral AI. In Germany, it's building an industrial AI cloud to support manufacturers. Similar rollouts are underway in Italy, Spain, Finland and the U.K., including a new AI lab in Britain.
Other announcements include a partnership with AI startup Perplexity to bring sovereign AI models to European publishers and telecoms, a new cloud platform with Mistral AI, and work with BMW and Mercedes-Benz to train AI-powered robots for use in auto plants.
The announcements reflect how central AI infrastructure has become to global strategy, and how Nvidia — the world's most valuable chipmaker — is positioning itself as the engine behind it.
At the center of the debate is Huang's concept of the AI factory: not a plant that makes goods, but a vast data center that creates intelligence. These facilities train language models, simulate new drugs, detect cancer in scans, and more.
Asked if such systems risk creating a 'technological priesthood' — hoarding computing power and stymying the bottom-up innovation that fueled the tech industry for the past 50 years — Huang pushed back.
'Through the velocity of our innovation, we democratize,' he told The Associated Press. 'We lower the cost of access to technology.'
As Huang put it, these factories 'reason,' 'plan,' and 'spend a lot of time talking to' themselves, powering everything from ChatGPT to autonomous vehicles and diagnostics.
But some critics warn that without guardrails, such all-seeing, self-reinforcing systems could go the way of Skynet in ' The Terminator ' movie — vast intelligence engines that outpace human control.
'Just as electricity powered the last industrial revolution, AI will power the next one,' he said. 'Every country now needs a national intelligence infrastructure.'
He added: 'AI factories are now part of a country's infrastructure. That's why you see me running around the world talking to heads of state — they all want AI to be part of their infrastructure. They want AI to be a growth manufacturing industry for them.'
Europe, long praised for its leadership on digital rights, now finds itself at a crossroads. As Brussels pushes forward with world-first AI regulations, some warn that over-caution could cost the bloc its place in the global race. With the U.S. and China surging ahead and most major AI firms based elsewhere, the risk isn't just falling behind — it's becoming irrelevant.
Huang has a different vision: sovereign AI. Not isolation, but autonomy — building national AI systems aligned with local values, independent of foreign tech giants.
'The data belongs to you,' Huang said. 'It belongs to your people, your country… your culture, your history, your common sense.'
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
But fears over AI misuse remain potent — from surveillance and deepfake propaganda to job losses and algorithmic discrimination. Huang doesn't deny the risks. But he insists the technology can be kept in check — by itself.
'In the future, the AI that is doing the task is going to be surrounded by 70 or 80 other AIs that are supervising it, observing it, guarding it, ensuring that it doesn't go off the rails.'
The VivaTech event was part of Huang's broader European tour. He had already appeared at London Tech Week and is scheduled to visit Germany. In Paris, he joined French President Emmanuel Macron and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch to reinforce his message that AI is now a national priority.
—
Chan reported from London.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Minnesota women's coach Dawn Plitzuweit gets 2-year contract extension with raise
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota women's basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit has received a two-year contract extension that was approved Thursday by the university's board of regents. Plitzuweit is 47-29 over two seasons at Minnesota, including 13-23 in Big Ten play, with leading scorer Mara Braun missing much of them with foot injuries. The Gophers capped Plitzuweit's second year by winning the WBIT championship. They have not appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 2018. The new deal, which covers the next six seasons through 2031, gives Plitzuweit a raise of roughly 7% to bring her base salary to $900,000 for 2025-26, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune, with annual increases of $30,000. That's in the middle of the pack in the 18-team Big Ten, which sent 12 of them to the NCAA Tournament this year. Plitzuweit was hired away from West Virginia, where she spent one season, to replace Lindsay Whalen. Plitzuweit is the 13th head coach in the program's history. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women's college basketball: and
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
A satirical article said Cape Breton has its own time zone. Google and Meta AI repeated it as fact
Janel Comeau managed to trick Google and Meta with just her words. The Halifax-based writer had penned a satirical article for The Beaverton, a Canadian parody news site. It said that Cape Breton, the island off the northern coast of Nova Scotia, was adopting its own time zone in a cheeky plea for attention from the rest of the Maritimes. "We are tired of being ignored. And that is why we will be making the incredibly irritating step of moving the entire island to the new Cape Breton Time Zone, where we will be 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia, and 18 minutes behind Newfoundland," Comeau wrote. But what came next was no joke. While reviewing her past work, Comeau noticed something odd on Facebook: Meta's AI-generated prompts were appearing under her article — as if it were real news. "It was like, 'Find out more information about when this time zone change will take effect,' [or] 'How will this affect businesses?'" she told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I realized very quickly: Oh, it's treating this as a real article." Curious, Comeau asked Meta AI directly, and searched on Google with the question of whether Cape Breton would indeed be getting its own time zone. Both said that yes, it would. "[I felt] in-between, this is very funny and oh no, what have I done?" she said. Unpacking search engines and AI Jian-Yun Nie, a professor in the department of computer science at the University of Montreal, says this incident reflects how artificial intelligence and search engines process content, without necessarily evaluating its truthfulness. And in Google's case, says Nie, search rankings are driven by a mix of factors: the use of keywords that match a query, how often an article is linked to other content, and its overall popularity — like user clicks. " So if you ask what is the time zone of Cape Breton and whether there is a new time zone, [Comeau's] article may appear at some top position," said Nie. Nie says AI systems typically scan multiple related articles to synthesize an answer, but that only works well if the sources are correct, and if the system can distinguish between reliable and unreliable information. Without understanding context — or satire — they can mistake humour for fact. According to Nie, AI systems primarily assess reliability based on the source of the information — favouring trusted outlets like reputable newspapers over less credible ones. However, he says there's no universal standard for determining what's reliable and what isn't. "How do you trust one person and not another [person]?" Nie said as a comparison. "It is quite difficult to make an algorithm to mimic exactly the same behaviour of human beings, but the algorithms are trying to do the same thing at this stage." How do we avoid being misled? Since the incident, both Google and Meta have corrected their systems. At the time of writing, Meta AI now responds: "No, Cape Breton Island does not have its own time zone. It follows Atlantic Standard Time and Atlantic Daylight Time, the same as the rest of Nova Scotia." According to Osmar Zaiane, a University of Alberta professor specializing in AI and data mining, that kind of swift correction is standard procedure, and part of the growing pains of emerging technologies. "Each time they find a hole like this, they try to fix it," said Zaiane. "You can't think of all possibilities; there's always something that some people discover." CBC reached out to Google and Meta for comment, but have not yet received a response. Both companies have language in their terms and services disclaiming responsibility for the accuracy of their search or query results. To avoid being misled, both Zaiane and Nie urge people to cross-check AI-generated answers with multiple sources. "We should use our own judgment to see whether it can be plausible," said Nie. "In this case, if Google tells you there is a new time zone in Cape Breton, you [should] check other articles." Fortunately, Comeau's fictional time zone seems to have caused no real confusion or chaos — or at least, none that she has heard of. "I've not heard of from any tourists who've missed their ferries as a result of this, but maybe they're out there," she said. "Knowing that somebody may have not gotten to Greco Pizza before it closes — I don't know, it's a heavy cross to bear."
Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Why QuantumScape Stock Jumped Almost 10% This Week
Some energy stocks have been soaring as investors look to get in early on new technologies that could help supply growing power demand. With electric vehicle (EV) sales continuing to increase and data centers popping up seemingly everywhere to supply increasing needs for artificial intelligence (AI) compute power, investors want to cash in too. One name that jumped as much as almost 12% this week was solid-state battery company QuantumScape (NYSE: QS). The stock was still higher by 9.3% as of late Thursday afternoon, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Solid-state batteries are for more than just electric vehicles Much of the recent attention on data center power needs has centered on fuel cells or small modular nuclear reactors. The technology QuantumScape is developing has been focused on the EV market as it scales into prototype production and customer testing phases. QuantumScape is making progress toward commercializing its battery technology. In its first-quarter report, the company said it is ahead of schedule to bring its next phase of manufacturing solid-state battery cells into baseline production. EV customers are getting closer to field-testing the product. The higher energy density in solid-state batteries should provide EVs with a safer alternative and better vehicle range, with lower costs and enhanced performance. But QuantumScape will have a market beyond EVs too. Solid-state batteries can be applied for renewable energy storage, consumer electronics, medical devices, and other applications. Investors see a scarcity of energy sources developing as demand ramps up from AI data centers, robotics, and self-driving car fleets. As QuantumScape gets closer to commercialization, the stock is ticking higher along with other energy names this week. Should you invest $1,000 in QuantumScape right now? Before you buy stock in QuantumScape, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and QuantumScape wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $657,871!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $875,479!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is998% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to174%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
