Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., has been struggling to find a place for his company in the AI boom. Google engineers laid the groundwork for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but Microsoft capitalized on it. Now Google has rushed forward with its own AI tools, notably the chatbot Bard, while trying mightily not to tick off users, regulators or the advertisers that pay its bills. We spoke to Pichai about the strange twists of this AI moment and what he plans to do about them. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve witnessed many waves of innovation in Silicon Valley. What’s the significance of this one?It’s rare to find things which hit consumers and enterprises and all the way to countries. The pace, the public excitement—it’s definitely a seminal moment.
Many of Google’s new AI products have been presented as experiments. How much potential do you see for them to be a permanent part of Google search?These are going to be part of the mainstream search experience. There are a few things we want to make sure we get right. People come to us and type queries like, “What’s the Tylenol dosage for my 3-year-old?” There’s no room to get that wrong.
