Google has been at the heart of the AI buildout for the best part of a decade; all modern generative AI technologies are based on its scientists’ work in building out the transformer architecture in 2017. Sundar Pichai, who’s been leading the company for more than 10 years, is all in on AI and its transformative potential for mankind.
“AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.”
Google’s AI bullishness
Speaking at a town hall event in 2018 hosted by MSNBC, Pichai made the rather bold statement on the impact that AI can have on humankind at a time when the technology was incredibly embryonic.
Sure, plenty of early AI and AI-adjacent technologies were in deployment in startups and enterprises alike, ranging from machine learning to automation, but the extent of the Google chief’s bullishness might have seemed hyperbolic at the time.
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This quote also followed similarly extreme statements, including an infamous quote from Elon Musk that AI is vastly more risky than North Korea, for instance.
While these technologies were actively shaping outcomes for businesses and consumers, this was all behind the scenes rather than front-and-center. Still, with Pichai enjoying a front row seat, his thoughts are not to be sniffed at.
AI has ensnared the tech world
During the town hall, interviewer and then Record executive editor Kara Swisher countered: “Fire? Fire is pretty good.” The Google CEO’s implication is that AI will one day have an impact on our civilization that supercedes what we consider to be fundamental discoveries that shaped our trajectory as a species.
While it remains a matter of opinion, AI hasn’t yet demonstrated this fundamental impact – despite year-over-year improvements. But you can’t discount the possibility that the science will on day catch up with the tech industry’s imagination.
Most scientists agree that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is on the horizon – one day at least. If this hypothetical technology lives up to its widely hyped potential, Pichai’s optimism may be vindicated after all.
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