Nvidia CEO admits kids are forgetting basic maths because of AI, says it doesn't matter

Using AI tools may make your life easy, but this convenience may be at a cost. But this cost, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says, may be worth it, even if it hampers the math skills of children today.During a conversation on The Ezra Klein Show, Jensen Huang was asked about the effect AI was having on students. A study of 26,000 students in China found that while children were able to do homework quicker with AI, their exam scores dropped by as much as 20 percent within six months.Jensen Huang agreed that children were starting to rely less on their own skills. “Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten,” he said. “Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten.”But Huang insisted that even if children today were starting to forget basic math, it was not really going to be an issue for an AI world. “Does it matter?... I don’t think it does.” The Nvidia CEO was then asked if there were some skills that still would matter. Huang claimed that while that would be the case, math skills like long division were likely not important anymore. “Oh yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those,” he explained. Jensen Huang doesn’t know his addressIn fact, Jensen Huang made an interesting confession. He claimed that he actually didn’t know the address of his house. “There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address,” Huang said. The show’s host, Ezra Klein, was surprised to hear this from the CEO of one of the world’s most valuable companies. He replied, “I don’t really believe that to be true.”But Jensen Huang insisted that it really was the case. He said that his personal assistant, Janine Paul, and his wife, Lori Huang, could confirm this. “One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked,” Huang added. “I didn’t know my ZIP code.” The Nvidia boss went further, claiming that not just his address, he didn't even know his phone number. “I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it,” he said.However, Jensen Huang pointed out that while we may see the younger generation forget some skills, they may acquire newer ones that may be more useful. “I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers,” he added. System thinkers, Huang says, would be able to visualise large systems or computers, rather than doing mundane things that we had to remember before.Though the internet did not seem so convinced by Huang’s vision for children today. One user took a dig at the Nvidia CEO for not remembering his address. “Guy who literally can't find his own house without his driver: ‘yeah, I dunno, I think your kids can get by without knowing how to do math and stuff,’” the user wrote on X. Some mocked Huang over his comments. On a more serious note, though, some pointed out that if your children didn’t focus on basic math, they would rely more on AI tools. “These people want a stupid population who are reliant on their products to function,” one person said. Another user added, “They want you completely dependent on their products, that's it.” Others found the whole idea to be quite alarming. There have been others who have made similar comments around the impact of AI on thinking skills. Previously, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that his company wants a future where people would buy intelligence on a meter, just like how we use electricity today. Meanwhile, Anthropic's product head for Claude Code and Claude Cowork, Cat Wu, said in May that Claude may soon think on your behalf.We have also seen more studies around the impact of AI tools. Studies suggest that using AI chatbots for even 10 to 15 minutes may reduce independent thinking. A separate study says that AI may quietly alter your opinion too.- Ends