As expected from any event in 2020, Nvidia’s annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC) took place largely online, with Chief Executive Jensen Huang appearing to deliver a keynote speech from the comfort of his kitchen.

The advent of the cloud, he said, marks the dawn of the artificial intelligence (AI) age, the “most powerful technology force of our time.” To date, he suggested, the ability to automate processes, and thus improve efficiencies, has been limited by people’s ability to write software. The combination of advanced deep-learning, abundant data and the computing power of graphical processing units (GPUs) changes this: AI means that software can write software. In effect, he said, “AI is the automation of automation.”…