Google's rise to becoming the most
powerful company in the world is
gripping and all-encompassing.
>> The assistance around us, the knowledge
that we have at our fingertips,
literally will be profound. It'll be a
very, very powerful world.
For a decade, Eric Schmidt operated as
its CEO and afterwards as the executive
chairman. Now he works on a series of
projects and investments as well as
advising governments on applications of
AI. Mr. Schmid, welcome and thank you
very much for the interview.
>> Thank you for having me.
>> You advise governments on the
implementation of the AI. What are they
most interested in?
>> Well, governments are concerned about
two things. One, they want to win, but
they're also concerned about safety for
their populations and can it be misused?
You have to solve both problems. They
have to both invest but they also have
to regulate and they're trying to sort
it out. Some are better than others.
>> There is huge excitement about AI at
this conference. However, when you
leave, you have the feeling that people
are actually really scared. Scared about
their jobs, scared about AI going into
the wrong hands. How valid are those
fears?
>> Uh there's some truth to them. Um the
models as they get smarter, if you will,
have dangers embedded in them. The
industry puts what are called guardrails
on them to try to prevent them from
answering questions like how do I kill
myself? How do I kill somebody else?
Things which are obviously dangerous. So
governments have trust and safety
programs to do that. Remember that this
is a wave that is a generational wave.
It will go through it will take 10 or 15
years. The PC revolution was like that.
The internet revolution was like that.
Social media was like that. AI will be
the same. We're just at the beginning of
the changes that AI will bring in
medicine, in science, in conflict, in
information, in misinformation, in what
you do and what I do. It will all change
mostly for the better.
>> Where are you most concerned about when
it comes to AI and SAI?
>> I'm actually concerned about us missing
the opportunity. And the reason is that
the arrival of an intelligence that's
sort of like a polymath, one of these
sort of brilliant minds that is aligned
with you, that works with you, is a
major change in human productivity and
efficiency. And we have to harness that
power. And we harness it for education,
right? for medicine, for the efficiency
of economies, for generating wealth, for
making the middle class stronger, from
taking people from absolute poverty into
the middle class, for climate change.
All of that is bene benefits from AI if
it's done correctly.
>> You were at the helm of Google when
social media came along. Did you see
back then the negative implications that
we are so aware of now?
>> I did not and I can confidently say that
almost all of my peers did not see it
either. Um when I think about it, I
think about it in terms of the bubble
that we live in. All of us are similar.
We have a certain level of education, a
certain set of political views. We come
from the west. And I think we did not
understand how these incredibly
important tools which benefited many
many people could also be misused. I
think that the fact that social media
has enabled tribalism and misinformation
was not in the plan. That's not what we
designed, but it happened and now we
have to address it. How can we learn
from this example when it comes now to
the AI revolution?
>> Well, I've written one book and I have
another book coming out in in November
on the same subject. We have to get
ahead of AI and its impact on human
life. When your child or your grandchild
has as its best friend a nonhuman actor,
right, a voice on a computer and they're
five years old, what does that do for
development? Should we allow it? How
should it behave? Children are very
important. um all sorts of issues around
messages and identification. I
personally am in free in favor of free
speech for humans but not for computers.
I want to hear from humans and their
voices. I don't want to hear what
computers think humans think. I want to
hear from actual humans. Those are
simple principles. Would not be
difficult to write them down.
>> You have spoken about implementation of
AI in warfare just now. How much of AI
is currently used on the battlefield?
almost none is used on the battlefield
and most of that I think is good.
Battles are very rough. It's very tough.
AI has every reason to in my view to
become an even more lethal solution in
warfare. And the wars that I have seen
are horrific. So unfortunately war will
be changed by AI too. Um in some sense
it's good because it'll become more
targeted but it's bad because it'll
become easier. But do you feel that
investments in warfare a government
should also change and be more adapted
to the new world?
>> Well, I do because the simple simple
answer is that drones which are
inexpensive can take out a tank, right?
So tanks are very expensive. Drones are
very cheap. Tank versus drone, the drone
wins. So all of these assumptions that
militaries have made about the
importance of large things like aircraft
carriers and submarines and army bases
and so forth and tanks and other very
exotic weapons uh which you see in
America all the time are are essentially
being undermined. All those assumptions
are being undermined by this new
technology as it rolls out. I'm
confident that in a decade the the the
structures of militaries will be very
different for that reason. Here in
Saudi, we have a sense that there is a
lot of pushing towards leadership of
this AI revolution. How well is the
kingdom placed to do so?
>> Saudi is very well positioned if it does
a whole bunch of things. Saudi has
abundant energy, obviously, abundant
land, and a strong commitment to
building things. U the world is going to
need gigawatts and gigawatts of data
centers. These are very, very large data
centers. They could be in Saudi and
Saudi has good enough connectivity that
Saudi could be one of the places not the
only place but one of the places where
AI technology is invented and developed
often by people who are in other
countries using them. The key to this
remember is that the internet is
borderless in that sense and the work
can be done here while the people live
in the countries where they are are
from. It's a good outcome.
>> You did say that a few things would have
to be done like what? Well, the most
important thing is a commitment to do
it. And the good news about this
government is this government is willing
to put large amounts of money behind
successful investments. One thing I have
said to the Saudis this trip is those
investments will be very, very good
financially. It's good business. It's
good strategically. And frankly, it's
good for a Saudi as it's trans goes
through its transformation to become a
world leader to be at this level. They
need to do this to get to where they
want to be.
>> Here at FI8, as we said, there is so
much excitement about the AI.
Realistically, where are we as a society
with implementation of AI?
>> We're just at the beginning. Um, you as
a consumer see it in the way the social
media apps work and Google works and so
forth. But I want you to think
differently. Today in your show, you
have a producer and a director and a
whole team that helps you. Why is that
not all those functions not handled by
your AI assistant that knows exactly
what's going on? Helps you become even
better than you already are. Each of us
will become better at what we do because
we'll have these assistants and these
assistants will be with our permission
highly personalized to what we do and
what we care about.
>> Do you feel that educational system is
prepared to teach an entire new mindset
of this future work? What I would say is
that AI transforms every industry
including education. Um it's obvious
that teachers will be important.
Teachers with AI will be better teachers
than teachers without.
>> And last question, how important with
all the AI systems we have, is it still
to sit down and talk like we are doing
here today, like all these people are
doing here today at FI?
>> I think that human contact, human
connection is going to be with us for
the rest of humanity. Um eventually the
computers will run a whole bunch of
stuff while we're still talking to each
other. Um so I think human behavior is
not going to change very much but the
assistance around us the knowledge that
we have at our fingertips literally um
will be profound. Think about what you
know now from your use of Google right
compared to before Google and now
imagine when you have an assistant
that's using Google or from Google that
can really uh upcharge what you do.
It'll be a very very powerful world.
>> Thank you very much indeed.
>> Thank you.