- Google CEO Sundar Pichai can’t understand why some think artificial intelligence (AI) will take the place of human workers
- He says technological automation hasn’t wiped out the jobs predicted 20 years ago and new professions are constantly being created
- However, he recognizes that there will be disruptions in the labor market and that governments will have to get involved
At the heart of Google’s strategy, artificial intelligence is developing tools capable of automating human tasks on an impressive scale. But the firm’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, seems to have trouble grasping the social and economic implications of this technological revolution.
Podcast guest Decoder of the site The Verge, he was asked about the risks of seeing AI replace millions of jobs, especially in the sector of knowledge work. A question that did not come out of nowhere, since a recent note from Goldman-Sachs estimated that nearly 300 million jobs could be delegated to AI.
Will AI overtake us? Google’s CEO is overwhelmed
Pichai’s response was evasive to say the least. He first claimed that predictions made 20 years ago about the effects of technological automation have not come true. He took the example of movie theatres, which were supposed to disappear with technological innovation.
A curious choice, cinema attendance having been in constant decline since 2002, not to mention the writers’ strike in Hollywood, in which AI is a major issue.
But when the reporter pointed out to him that the movie industry is in decline, the Google CEO seemed to lose his temper. “There will always be… Unemployment over the past 20 years of tech automation has not been… 20 years ago when people were predicting exactly what tech automation would do, there were very specific announcements entire job categories that would disappear”he stammered. “That didn’t completely happen.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know”he eventually admitted later. “So it’s not very clear to me how this all plays out.”
Sundar Pichai further asserted that “new professions are constantly being created”but also recognized that there will be “significant disruptions in the labor market” and “governments will have to get involved”.
“But I think you shouldn’t underestimate the beneficial side of some of these things, too”he added. “And it’s complicated, maybe that’s how I would put it.”
Sundar Pichai’s answers are therefore far from convincing. This interview came as the CEO of Google had just announced the latest from Bard, the company’s conversational AI. During Google I/0 2023, he and his teams detailed Bard’s next developments with, in particular, a more ethical and social approach. There still seems to be work to be done.
