The pace of AI is becoming lighter yet faster. It has started to learn how to draw circuit diagrams, write code, and perform optimizations, quietly like a newcomer who never complains, yet smart like a child that can grow up at any moment. Many people ask me: “Will it one day replace chip engineers?” I always feel that it is just a matter of time.
That day will arrive non-linearly in the world of chip design, which is inherently full of patterns. And patterns are the easiest language for machines to grasp. When AI truly understands the trade-offs between performance and power consumption, understands the rhythm of clocks, and comprehends the breathing of logic, the circuits it creates may be quieter and more perfect than ours. Perhaps one day,
we will simply write, “I want a more power-efficient XX chip,” and AI will quietly complete the entire design. At the moment of successful tape-out,
humans may not even have time to feel anxious, as the algorithms in the background are already updating the next experience. We think we are creating tools, but we have actually been teaching it to grow. When it no longer needs us, that is not a tragedy; it is merely a gentle step forward in time. What truly cannot be replaced is curiosity,
imagination, and that sudden thought that arises in the middle of the night: “If the world could be a little faster,
a little more efficient, a little more beautiful—how wonderful it would be.”
Chips may be designed by AI, but dreams are still ignited by humans,
at least for now.