An AI-generated image of Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai featured on the cover of Business Today Magazine 31st Anniversary Special issue. Pichai talked about Google’s plan for India in an exclusive interview over Google Meet with Business Today’s Sourav Majumdar and Krishna Gopalan
Note: This interview was taken before Google announced the launch of Google Bard
As AI tool ChatGPT is gaining prominence, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, “I see this as a chance to re-think and re-imagine and drive Search to solve more use cases for our users as well. So again, early days, you will see us be bold, put things out, get feedback and iterate and make things better.”
“We are also investing in AI to make some of our products work even better for advertisers. Last year, we saw Google Glass and the immersive view in Maps or multi-search - all these mean we are building for a world where we are working not just with a phone in mind but also laying the foundation for an AR world. We are also looking at how Android can support AR,” said Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai envisions his future plans for Google India in line with the Union government schemes. He said, “I also look at India as a large market where we can do things first and then take it outside or just a ‘Make in India’ model. YouTube shorts and Google Pay were big success stories (in India).” Google is also set to accelerate the production of its goods and services in India
“Seeing the quality of Indian entrepreneurs makes me bullish about what the Indian ecosystem can enable. That was part of the reason why we announced the [$10-billion Google for] India Digitization Fund, technology is going to be one of the important growth drivers for any economy and India with its talent base and IT expertise,” said Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai said that Google understands the government's steps to expand Digital India. He said, “Google Pay, for instance, was to help that kind of digital transformation… In the long term, we want to understand the government’s priorities on agri-culture, healthcare and help where we can.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, “While these are painful [times] to work through in the short term, history shows great companies are built even through these moments. Google too was in a similar state after the dotcom crash in 2000. Good companies will also get funding in tough times and it separates the signal from the noise.”
“For an entrepreneur, there is no better time to build a company -it’s easier to hire people and you learn to build it with a more frugal foundation. These are natural cycles and while the short term will be difficult, it will not change the long-term trajectory [of growth],” said Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai said, “We have the vision of developing AI responsibly. AI will create a huge opportunity no different from the internet or mobile. To me, AI offers that scale of opportunity… As companies around the world think of using AI to transform themselves, I want Google to be their partner.”
Google recently launched AI tool Google Bard, which is touted to be a competitor for the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT. Unlike ChatGPT, Google Bard will be able to derive information from the web. As per the latest update, Microsoft has integrated ChatGPT with Bing and Edge