- In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes aired on Sunday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted that society isn’t ready for the rapid advances in AI.
- Pichai said the law guarding advances in AI “is not something that companies decide in isolation.”
- AI will affect “every product from every company,” he said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaking at a panel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Summit of the Americas on June 9, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai says “every product from every company” will be impacted by the rapid development of AI, warning that society needs to prepare for the kind of technology that has already been announced. Did.
In an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, interviewer Scott Pelley said that after trying out some of Google’s AI projects, he referred to human-like abilities, saying, “I’m speechless.” I feel restless,” he said. Products like Google’s chatbot Bard.
“We as a society have to adapt,” Pichai told Perry, adding that jobs disrupted by AI include “knowledge workers” such as writers, accountants, architects and, ironically, software engineers. ‘ was included, he added.
“This will affect every product from every company,” Pichai said. “For example, if you’re a radiologist, five to 10 years from now, you’ll have an AI collaborator with you. You’ll come in the morning, Let’s say you have to go through 100 things, and you might say, ‘These are the most serious cases that should be looked at first.'”
Perry has seen other areas using advanced AI products within Google, including DeepMind, where robots play soccer learned from themselves rather than from humans. In another unit, the robot recognized the item on the counter and brought the apple Perry asked for.
In warning about the impact of AI, Pichai said the problem of disinformation and fake news and images is “much bigger” and “potentially harmful.”
Last month, CNBC reported that Pichai told employees internally that the success of the newly launched Bird program hinged on public testing, adding, “Things aren’t going to go well.”
Google launched the AI chatbot Bard last month as an experimental product. This followed his January announcement that OpenAI’s GPT technology, which gained international attention after the launch of his ChatGPT in 2022, will be incorporated into Microsoft’s search engine Bing. .
But concerns about the consequences of rapid progress have also reached the public and critics in recent weeks. It called for an immediate suspension of training “experiments” involving large-scale language models “more powerful than GPT-4.” Since then, over 25,000 people have signed the letter.
“Competitive pressures between giants like Google and upstarts you’ve never heard of are driving humanity into the future, ready or not,” Perry commented in the segment. .
Google released a document outlining “recommendations to regulate AI,” while Pichai said society should regulate, laws punishing abuse, treaties between nations to make AI safe for the world, and “morality.” We must quickly adapt to rules that are consistent with human values, including. .”
“It’s not for the company to decide,” Pichai said. “This is why I think the development of this needs to include social scientists, ethicists, philosophers, etc., not just engineers.”
When asked if society is ready for AI technology like the bard, Pichai said, “On the one hand, I feel no, because we think as a social system and can adapt.” The pace seems to be a mismatch compared to the pace at which technology evolves.”
But compared to other technologies in the past, “the number of people who started worrying about its impact” was early on, so he added he was optimistic.
From Perry’s six-word prompt, the bard created stories with characters and plot lines it invented, such as a man whose wife was unable to conceive, and a stranger who was grieving after a miscarriage and longing for closure. “I am seldom at a loss for words,” said Perry. “The human nature of superhuman speed was a shock”
When Mr. Perry asked Mr. Byrd why it helps people, Mr. Byrd replied, “Because it makes me happy,” and Mr. Perry said he was shocked. ,” he told James Manyika, a senior vice president Google hired last year to head “technology and society.” Manika replies that he can “act” like a bard, although the bard is unsentient and does not recognize himself.
Pichai also said Byrd had many hallucinations after explaining that Perry had asked Byrd about inflation and received an immediate response that five books were suggested.
Perry also seems concerned when Pichai says chatbots have a “black box” and “doesn’t fully understand” why or how they get certain responses. was.
“You don’t fully understand how it works, but you’re throwing it out into society?” Perry asked.
“In other words, I don’t think we fully understand how the human mind works,” Pichai replied.
