Google CEO Sundar Pichai: World Isn’t Prepared for AI

Is society ready for the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution? Yes and no, according to Google’s CEO.

“On one hand, I feel no because the pace at which we can think and adapt as societal institutions, compared to the pace at which the technology is evolving, there seems to be a mismatch,” Sundar Pichai said in a Sunday (April 16) interview with “60 Minutes.” “On the other hand, compared to any other technology, I’ve seen more people worried about it earlier in its life cycle … [and worried] about the implications.”

Pichai’s company is among those concerned about AI, with the CEO telling CBS that the technology will “impact every product across every company.”

The ubiquity of AI and the speed of its development has led to a “regulation-innovation” tug of war, according to PYMNTS.

The latest example of the call for more AI oversight came Monday (April 17), when a group of European lawmakers issued a letter saying they want to make sure AI legislation moves “the development of very powerful artificial intelligence in a direction that is human centric, safe and trustworthy,” adding that the issue requires “significant political attention.”

Others have called for AI innovations to be put on hold, a move that seems to miss the point.

“So what would happen if legitimate researchers and their investors really did pause AI development?” PYMNTS wrote April 5. “The most likely scenario is one where illegitimate researchers and profit-chasing companies fill the gap and advance AI’s velocity for their own gain, with few guardrails around data set integrity.”

The “60 Minutes” interview appeared on the same day as reports that Google is rebuilding its search engine as it faces an increased challenge from rival Bing, whose parent, Microsoft, has invested heavily in ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

After news broke that Bing would feature AI-enhanced search, Google said earlier this month it would add conversational AI to its search engine.

As for the Sunday report, a company spokesperson told PYMNTS Google had for years been bringing AI to its search tool.

“We’ve done so in a responsible and helpful way that maintains the high bar we set for delivering quality information,” she said. “Not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to Search and will share more details soon.”