“AI is one of the most profound things we are working on as humanity,” says Google CEO Sundar Pichai. “It’s more profound than fire or electricity or any of the other bigger things we have worked on. It has tremendous positive sights to it but it has (potential) real negative consequences. When you think about technologies like facial recognition it can be used to benefit, it can be used to find missing people, but it can also be used for mass surveillance.”

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, discussed the massive potential for AI to change the world in a Bloomberg interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland:

AI Is More Profound Than Fire or Electricity

AI is one of the most profound things we are working on as humanity. It’s more profound than fire or electricity or any of the other bigger things we have worked on. It has tremendous positive sights to it but it has (potential) real negative consequences. When you think about technologies like facial recognition it can be used to benefit, it can be used to find missing people, but it can also be used for mass surveillance. 

As democratic countries with a shared set of values, we need to build on those values and make sure when we approach AI we are doing it in a way that serves society. That means making sure AI doesn’t have bias, that we build and test it for safety, and we make sure that there is human agency that is ultimately accountable to people. 

We Need a Common Framework By Which We Approach AI

About 18 months ago we published a set of principles under which we would develop AI at Google. It’s been very encouraging to see the European Commissioners identifiy AI and sustainability as their top priorities. The US put out a set of principles last week and at the OECD or G20 they are talking about this. I think this is very very encouraging and I think we need a common framework by which we approach AI.

It’s an early start but I am very encouraged that they have a lot of commonalities and that’s because they are rooted in common human values. So I think it’s a great start but we need to get more specific and evolve it significantly. The European Commission is working on a white paper around AI and I think that’s an important first step. We all need to engage. 

As a company, we are committed to engaging in the process but it’s going to need everyone from around the world. AI is no different from climate, you can’t get safety by just having one country or a set of countries working on it. You need a global framework to arrive at a safer world there.