Google CEO Sundar Pichai Claims AI to Become More Profound Than Electricity or Even Fire
In a statement that might cause Prometheus to roll his eyes, Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai claims that AI is to become the most profound piece of technology in human history. These comments came from an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes program which aired recently.
During the interview, Sundar Pichai did not mince words. In his view, AI is an earth-shattering technology that could be humanity’s greatest achievement. He said in part, “as the most profound technology humanity is working on. More profound than fire, electricity, or anything that we have done in the past.”
It’s no surprise then, that the company he helms, is investing heavily both internally and externally. Internally, Bard has caught the imagination of many as it seems to be an answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This doesn’t even account for their other LLMs and NLP ventures in medicine, with med-palm ai and DeepVariant. Externally, the company has also invested heavily in AI.
For example, this past February, Google invested $300 million dollars into AI startup Anthropic — a clear signal to others that the company doesn’t plan on being idle when it comes to generative AI. In the interview, Pichai would go on to hint at some of what Google has in store, without giving out much detail, “We are developing technology which, for sure, one day will be far more capable than anything we’ve ever seen before.”
All of this comes shortly after it was announced that Google was pushing full steam ahead in integrating AI features into its namesake search engine. It is thought that because of the risk of losing out its contract with Samsung to rival Bing, and the public reception of Microsoft’s own integration, the company wants to move fast on its own projects.
With all that said, Sundar Pichai was clear about fears related to AI that he also shares with other tech leaders. Primarily, related to the speed of AI’s ascendance. “We don’t have all the answers there yet, and the technology is moving fast…So does that keep me up at night? Absolutely.”
Originally posted on OpenDataScience.com
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