Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google-parent Alphabet said no company would remain unscathed if the artificial intelligence (AI) firm boom collapses. This comes amid high valuations and heavy investments fueling concerns of a bubble.
Pichai said in an interview with BBC that the current wave of AI investment was an “extraordinary moment” but acknowledged “elements of irrationality” in the market, echoing warnings of “irrational exuberance” during the dotcom era.
“We can look back at the internet right now. There was clearly a lot of excess investment, but none of us would question whether the internet was profound,” Pichai said. “I expect AI to be the same. So I think it’s both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this.”
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“I think no company is going to be immune, including us,” Pichai added. However, he also said that Google’s unique model of owning its own “full stack” of technologies — from chips to YouTube data, to models and frontier science — meant it was in a better position to ride out any AI market turbulence.
Pichai said Alphabet will develop “state of the art” research work in the UK including at its key AI unit DeepMind, based in London. In September, Alphabet pledged £5 billion ($6.58 billion) over two years for UK AI infrastructure and research, including a new data center and investment in DeepMind, its London-based AI lab.
In the interview, which took place at Google’s California headquarters, Pichai also addressed energy needs, slowing down climate targets, UK investment, the accuracy of his AI models, and the effect of the AI revolution on jobs. He said that Google would begin training models in Britain, a move UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hopes will bolster the country’s ambition to be the world’s third AI “superpower” after the United States and China. He also warned of the “immense” energy needs of AI and said Alphabet’s net-zero targets would be delayed as it scales up computing power.
Pichai acknowledged that the intensive energy needs of its expanding AI venture meant there was slippage on the company’s climate targets, but insisted Alphabet still had a target of achieving net zero by 2030 by investing in new energy technologies. “The rate at which we were hoping to make progress will be impacted,” he said.
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Pichai also called AI “the most profound technology” humankind had worked on. “We will have to work through societal disruptions,” he said, adding that it would also “create new opportunities.”
There has been much debate lately over whether AI valuations are sustainable. In the U.S., broader marketers have been affected by lofty AI valuations. British policymakers have also flagged bubble risks.
Several other executives recently expressed concerns about the AI bubble. Jarek Kutylowski, CEO of German AI firm DeepL, and Picsart CEO Hovhannes Avoyan recently told CNBC that it is a concern.