Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says AI Can be Harmful if Not Deployed Correctly

Google CEO Sundar Pichai urged the importance of new regulations to govern AI saying that the negative side of AI has been giving him sleepless nights

As artificial intelligence continues to grow, more and more companies around the world are coming in with amazing new AI products each day. Speaking about this growing artificial intelligence industry in a recent interview, Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed his concerns over the wrong use of artificial intelligence, saying that the negative side of AI has been giving him some sleepless nights.

Artificial intelligence “can be very harmful if deployed wrongly and we don’t have all the answers there yet – and the technology is moving fast. So does that keep me up at night? Absolutely,” said the Google CEO while talking about artificial intelligence in his CBS 60 Minutes interview.

Pichai also called on government authorities to create newer regulations for governing the use of artificial intelligence. “Society must quickly adapt with regulations for AI in the economy, laws to punish abuse, and treaties among nations to make AI safe for the world,” said the CEO.

During the interview Pichai was asked if the society is ready for what is coming next, to which he replied that “there are two ways I think about it. On one hand I feel, no, because you know, the pace at which we can think and adapt as societal institutions, compared to the pace at which the technology’s evolving, there seems to be a mismatch.

On the other hand, compared to any other technology, I’ve seen more people worried about it earlier in its life cycle. So I feel optimistic. The number of people, you know, who have started worrying about the implications, and hence the conversations are starting in a serious way as well.”

AI and its Risks

During the interview, Pichai was asked a lot of questions about the different types of risk attached to artificial intelligence. Discussing the impact of AI on jobs, the Google CEO said that it can potentially disrupt the jobs of “knowledge workers’ such as writers, accountants, architects and, ironically, software engineers.”

Apart from being a threat to jobs, AI is also being used for creating a lot of fake content such as fake voiceovers and especially pornographic videos created through deepfake. Talking about deepfake videos, the Google CEO said that “there have to be consequences for creating deepfake videos which cause harm to society.”

We Don’t Fully Understand How AI Works

During the interview CBS journalist Scott Pelley asked Pichai about why Google released its Bard AI, despite claiming that it does not fully understand how it works. “Let me put it this way. I don’t think we fully understand how a human mind works either,” said the Google CEO while replying to the question.

An open claim of not being able to understand how Google’s AI can produce certain responses was surely a scary claim, which only makes it more important for regulatory authorities to draft new AI laws.

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