Andrew Ng Says AI Is Highly Limited and Wont Replace Humans Anytime Soon
Right then. Andrew Ng has gone and said something rather sensible about AI which feels almost revolutionary these days.
The Google Brain co-founder told NBC News that artificial intelligence is “amazing” but also “highly limited.” And before the tech evangelists lose their minds entirely – this is coming from one of the most respected voices in the field.
“The tricky thing about AI is that it is amazing and it is also highly limited,” Ng said in an interview published Friday. “And understanding that balance of how amazing and how limited it is, that’s difficult.”
Who Is Andrew Ng Anyway
For those not steeped in Silicon Valley lore, Ng is genuinely one of the pioneers here. He co-founded Google Brain back in 2011 alongside Jeff Dean and others. He was chief scientist at Baidu. He started Coursera. The man has credentials for days.
And according to NBC, his biggest claim to fame now might be his status as a “Top Voice” on LinkedIn with over 2.3 million followers. Which is either impressive or depressing depending on how you feel about LinkedIn.
Pushing Back on the Hype
What makes this notable is that Ng isnt some random sceptic shouting from the sidelines. Hes literally running an AI developer conference. He built this stuff.
And hes out here calling AGI – artificial general intelligence – “overhyped.” He said it back at Y Combinator in July and hes saying it again now. Yahoo covered his earlier comments about how current training approaches wont lead to AGI.
Weve been tracking the hype cycle for a while now and its refreshing to hear someone with actual expertise pump the brakes a bit.
The Investment Bubble Question
Ng acknowledged that the AI investment landscape “looks like a bubble.” His words not mine. Thats a rather significant admission from someone whose livelihood depends on AI investment continuing.
The money being thrown at AI right now is genuinely staggering. And Ng is essentially saying maybe we should all calm down a touch.
He also said humans wont be “broadly displaced” anytime soon which contradicts about half of what youve read in tech journalism this year.
The DeepLearning.AI Conference
The interview was conducted on the sidelines of AI Dev 25 in New York City back in November. Ng’s company DeepLearning.AI organized the whole thing.
So hes not exactly anti-AI. Hes just anti-nonsense. Which is a refreshing position in a field absolutely drowning in nonsense.
What This Actually Means
Look, AI is going to change things. Some jobs will be affected. Some industries will transform. But the “AI will replace everyone by 2027” crowd needs to hear from people like Ng.
His Stanford credentials are solid. Time100 named him one of the most influential people in AI. When he says its limited, thats worth considering.
Tech layoffs continue even as AI spending accelerates. The disconnect between hype and reality in this industry has never been larger.
Maybe we should listen to the people who actually built this stuff rather than the ones selling shovels to goldminers.
