Market concerns and Google’s position
Alphabet’s recent market performance has been driven by investors’ confidence in the company’s ability to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as well as the development of specialized chips for AI that can compete with Nvidia. Nvidia recently reached a $5 trillion valuation for the first time in the world due to its creation of GPUs that can accelerate the matrix math at the heart of AI calculations.
Despite acknowledging that no company would be immune from the bursting of a potential AI bubble, Pichai argued that Google’s unique position gives it an advantage. He told the BBC that the company has a “full stack” of technologies, from chips to YouTube data to models and frontier science research. He suggested that this integrated approach would help the company weather any market turmoil better than competitors.
Pichai also told the BBC that people should not “blindly trust” every output from AI tools. The company is currently facing repeated accuracy concerns regarding some of its AI models. Pichai said that although AI tools are helpful “if you want to write something creatively,” people “need to learn to use these tools based on what they are good at and not blindly trust what they say.”
In the BBC interview, the Google boss also addressed the “excessive” energy requirements of AI, admitting that Alphabet’s climate goals have fallen short due to the intensive energy requirements of expanding AI enterprises. However, Pichai stressed that the company still wants to achieve net zero by 2030 through investments in new energy technologies. “The rate at which we were expecting to make progress will be impacted,” Pichai warned. He warned that disrupting an energy-based economy “will have consequences.”
Despite warnings about a potential AI bubble, Pichai never missed an opportunity to promote the technology, even after raising alarm about its broader impact. Pichai described AI as “the most profound technology” that mankind has worked on.
“We have to work through social disruptions,” he said, adding that technology will “create new opportunities” and “evolve and transform some jobs.” He said that people who adopt AI tools will “perform better” in their profession, no matter what field they work in.