A fireside chat Monday between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the SIGGRAPH 2024 conference in Colorado took just a few minutes. unexpected turns.
It all started innocently enough, with Huang waxing positive about the capabilities of Nvidia GPUs and Zuckerberg talking about his vision for a future AI-powered chatbot. But by the end, Huang and Zuckerberg were exchanging custom-made jackets, a throwback to the viral meme from earlier this year.
“It’s black, leather, shearling,” Zuckerberg said, describing the coat he brought Huang. “It’s a vibe. I mean, give this guy a chain.”
Huang gave Zuckerberg a new leather jacket that his wife, Lori, reportedly bought him to commemorate this year’s SIGGRAPH. He had been wearing it for two hours.
“It’s worth more because it’s used,” Zuckerberg said.
Other highlights of the hour-long exchange included references to the cows Zuckerberg raises on his Hawaiian ranch, an F-bomb drop, and Zuckerberg’s change of style. (Zuckerberg described it as “early stage.”) Huang didn’t shy away from criticizing Zuckerberg — a privilege that comes with Meta’s reliance on Nvidia for model training hardware, perhaps.
“It needs an AI that doesn’t judge,” Huang said.
Huang told an anecdote about Zuckerberg’s tomato-cutting habits. While they were making cheese sandwiches at Huang’s house, Zuckerberg was assigned the task of cutting the tomatoes, Huang recounted.
“So, Mark, I handed him a knife,” Huang said, “and he cut the tomatoes. Every single one of them is perfectly cut, down to the millimeter. But what’s really interesting is that I expected all the tomatoes to be cut and stacked, kind of like a deck of cards. But when I turned around, he said he needed another plate. And the reason is that all the tomatoes that he cut, none of them were touching. Once he separates one slice of tomato from the other, they shouldn’t touch anymore.”
Huang joked that Zuckerberg wanted to have second helpings of the cheesesteak at dinner. “Make me another cheesesteak, Jensen,” Zuckerberg retorted.
But the interview ended on a more complimentary note. Huang complimented Zuckerberg’s figure.
“I think Mark is pretty big,” he said. “Look, this guy is pretty muscular.”
Zuckerberg hugged Jensen and returned the compliment. “You too, man.”
techcrunch
