Sundar Pichai, CEO at Google, recently commented on the risks of AI investment as the sector continues to enjoy soaring valuations. He went on to state that no company including Alphabet (Google’s parent) would be immune if the current boom fails.
Speaking to BBC News in an exclusive interview, Pichai said the current surge in AI funding marks an “extraordinary moment” for the industry, but warned there is also “irrationality” in the market.
The chief compared the AI cycle to the dot-com era, stating that investment phases can “overshoot” even when the technology might be transformative. In Pichai’s view, “there was clearly a lot of excess investment” in the early internet boom, but its long-term impact was “profound”. He predicted AI would follow a similar trajectory.
His comments come as Google parent Alphabet’s valuation crossed $3 trillion in September, while Nvidia hit a record $5 trillion last month.
However, he argued Alphabet is better positioned than rivals to absorb turbulence due to its integrated “full stack” spanning chips, data sources like YouTube and frontier science, BBC News reported.
The company is also boosting its UK presence, having pledged £5 billion for AI infrastructure in the country earlier this year.
AI prone to errors
Pichai revealed Google is pushing to start training its AI models in the country for the first time, emphasising it is “committed to investing in the UK in a pretty significant way”.
In addition, the CEO cautioned “AI is dramatically increasing demand for energy in a way that the current systems can’t fully cope up”. He admitted rising power requirements have slowed Alphabet’s progress toward its 2030 net-zero target, although the company still expects to meet it through investing in new clean energy technologies. “This doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game”, he said.
Pichai also urged users not to rely overtly on AI systems, stressing they are “prone to some errors”. “The information ecosystem has to be much richer than just having AI technology being the sole product”, he noted, urging users to use AI alongside other tools. “This is why people also use Google search and we have other products which are more grounded in providing direct information right now”.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: Google
