Google CEO Sundar Pichai, called himself an ‘optimist’ in the Davos conference while saying, “AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.
Anytime you work with technology, you need to learn to harness the benefits while minimizing the downsides.”
Whereas Professor Stephen Hawking, Jack Ma & many well-recognized personalities have expressed their concern about AI wiping out mankind, Pichai has strongly held his ground and admitted that he believes Artificial Intelligence to be the savior of the human race. He also said that AI technology can and will help us eliminate many of the current problems we face. He proposed international cooperation on the scale of the Paris climate agreement to manage this prospect.
Growing up, I didn’t have a phone for a while, I waited five years. We got a telephone, it fundamentally changed our lives. I remember the joys of technology and I think that will be true for AI. It’s important for us to explain that and bring the world along with us – Google CEO, Sundar Pichai
Google has already announced AI research centers to be established in China and France.
Alibaba’s founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma possesses a completely different viewpoint from Sundar Pichai in this issue though. He thinks that AI and robots are very much capable of killing a lot of jobs opportunities.
The AI, Big Data is a threat to human beings. The AI and robots are going to kill a lot of jobs, because in the future, these will be done by machines. I think AI should support human beings. Technology should always do something that enables people, not disable people. – Jack Ma, Alibaba’s Founder and Executive Chairman
Talking about the responsibilities of tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Alibaba, he said, “But we have the responsibility to have a good heart and do something good. Make sure that everything you do is for the future.
People like us have the money and resources and we should spend money on technology that enables people, empowers people and makes life better.”
Ma strongly believes that, apart from creating a lot of successful people with interesting careers, every new technology is very much responsible for creating new social problems as well.
He added, “The first technology revolution caused the World War I and the second technology revolution caused the World War II and now we have the third revolution. If there is a World War III, I think that should be against disease, pollution and poverty, not against ourselves.”
While talking about women at work, he also said, “If you want your company to be successful, if you want your company to operate with wisdom and with care, then women are the best at work. Part of the ‘secret sauce’ of our success is because we have so many women colleagues.”
