Google CEO Sundar Pichai among Time 100 most influential people in AI: ‘Our goal with AI is to…’

Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared in Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in AI. The list, released on September 5 highlights the most impactful figures in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
The publication also released an interview of the Google CEO where he talked about how the tech giant is approaching the AI future. He also highlights that while wasn’t the first to build a search engine, it “was the first to build one good enough to attract the lion’s share of the market.”
A US judge recently ruled against Google and upheld the US Department of Justice’s view that Google’s search is a monopoly upheld by illegal anti-competitive actions.Facing risk to its business, Google has begun to introduce generative AI tools into products with billions of users, the most visible being Google Search, where new “AI Overviews” are now appearing above the familiar 10 blue links.
On asked about the ripple effects of such a fundamental change to Google Search, Pichai said “in the longer run, you're enabling access to knowledge and intelligence, which is core to our mission, at an unprecedented scale. We have work left to do to make all of this work well. But that's the vision.”

In the interview, Pichai said:
“When I look at it, it’s a long journey. Through the journey, there were going to be new products. Anytime when there's an exciting product, when you run a company, do you wish you were the first to do the product? Yeah, absolutely. Who wouldn't? But we take a long-term view.”
“We weren’t the first to build search, or a browser, or maps, or email, right? So I think what is important is, in the context of the new products we build, are we going to stay at the forefront? And I couldn’t be more pleased with the trajectory there, and more importantly what's ahead. These are very, very long term trends. We are in the early stages of what is going to be an extraordinarily big opportunity. So I'm focused on that,” he added.

I would argue that, if you take music as an example, we've actually taken a very different approach. We are partnering our initial generative AI tools for musicians to explore their creative space in more unique ways. Everything we are approaching in YouTube through this generative AI moment has been [about] providing tools for creators to create content. And we are not trying to put any AI-created content in YouTube. So I think you have a choice to make in these things. Ultimately, where I see the technology will have the most application—no different from what the internet did—is to be a deep collaborator to help people reach their full potential, whatever line of work they do. And it's more obvious in the case of creators and artists. I think society will always value those human voices. And I view it as an opportunity for us to invest in that.
Our goal with AI is to be able to help you with tasks so that, if anything, you have more time for the human moments to shine through. Talking to your child is one of those human moments. I think people aren't looking for help in those dimensions. I think that's where that [ad] got it wrong. But it's good that people are giving us feedback in terms of how they want to use the technology. I think we have to listen to it carefully and empower them in the way they want to be empowered.

Look, this is an important argument, and I think this is why we have given a clear way for people to opt out of our AI training. Any time there's a new technology, I think, as a society, you have to find the right balance between what's fair use and how do you really protect the copyright and intellectual property of the people who are producing the content. I think those questions will end up being very, very important. And I think in the early stages of the technology, we've given an opt-out, but over time we will invest in approaches which figure out a better balance. I think it has to be something that's evolving over time, with everyone having a stake in it.