Public transcript

FII: Eric Schmidt - Co-founder & his wife, Wendy, Schmidt Sciences; Former CEO & Chairman,Google,KBE

By: FII Institute
Length: 9 min
Language: English
Text from: the video's captions
Transcribed: 14 October 2026

Read the full transcript Open on YouTube

Notes in English.

Summary

In this short interview at the FII conference, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt discusses how governments balance competing to win in AI with regulating its safety, and why he is more worried about missing AI's opportunities than its dangers. He reflects on failing to foresee social media's harms, warns that AI will transform warfare by making cheap drones dominant over expensive weapons, and argues Saudi Arabia is well placed to become a major AI hub thanks to its energy, land, and investment commitment. He closes by saying AI assistants will profoundly boost human productivity while human connection remains unchanged.

Key points

Schmidt says governments want to win in AI while also protecting their populations from misuse, and must both invest and regulate.
He compares AI to a generational wave like the PC, internet, and social media revolutions, taking 10 to 15 years to play out.
He is most concerned about missing the opportunity of a polymath-like intelligence that could boost education, medicine, wealth, and climate efforts.
He admits he and his peers did not foresee social media enabling tribalism and misinformation, and says AI must be gotten ahead of.
He favors free speech for humans but not for computers, saying he wants to hear from actual humans.
He argues cheap drones can take out expensive tanks, undermining military assumptions, and predicts military structures will be very different in a decade.
He says Saudi Arabia has abundant energy, land, and commitment, and could host the huge data centers the world will need.
He believes AI assistants will make each person better at their work, and teachers with AI will be better than teachers without.
He says human contact and connection will remain with us for the rest of humanity even as computers run much of the world.

Questions it answers

00:00Opening and government advice

What are governments most interested in when it comes to AI?

Schmidt says governments want to win in AI while also worrying about safety and misuse for their populations. They have to both invest and regulate, and some are better at balancing this than others.

Governments must solve both winning and safety.
They need to invest and regulate at the same time.

01:00Fears about AI

How valid are people's fears about AI taking jobs or being misused?

Schmidt says there is some truth to these fears, noting models have embedded dangers and the industry uses guardrails to block dangerous answers. He frames AI as a generational wave, like the PC, internet, and social media, that will take 10 or 15 years and change things mostly for the better.

Guardrails exist to prevent dangerous answers.
AI is a generational wave taking 10 or 15 years.

02:10Missing the opportunity

What is Schmidt most concerned about with AI?

He is most concerned about missing the opportunity of a polymath-like intelligence aligned with you, which is a major change in human productivity. If done correctly, AI benefits education, medicine, economies, the middle class, poverty, and climate change.

A polymath-like AI assistant is a major productivity change.
AI can benefit many areas if done correctly.

02:50Lessons from social media

Did Schmidt foresee social media's negative implications while at Google?

He did not, and says almost none of his peers did either, attributing this to the bubble they lived in. He argues we must get ahead of AI, raising questions like children having nonhuman best friends, and favors free speech for humans but not for computers.

Neither he nor his peers foresaw social media's harms.
He supports free speech for humans, not computers.

03:50AI and warfare

How is AI used on the battlefield and how will it change war?

Almost no AI is used on the battlefield now, which he thinks is good. He says war will be changed by AI, becoming more targeted but easier, and cheap drones can take out expensive tanks, undermining assumptions about carriers, submarines, and bases. He predicts military structures will be very different in a decade.

Drone versus tank, the drone wins.
Military structures will be very different in ten years.

05:20Saudi Arabia's AI position

How well placed is Saudi Arabia to lead the AI revolution?

Schmidt says Saudi Arabia is very well positioned if it commits, citing abundant energy, abundant land, and willingness to invest large amounts of money. The world needs gigawatts of data centers that could be in Saudi, and the borderless internet allows work to be done there by people living elsewhere.

Saudi has energy, land, and commitment to build.
Large data center investments are good business and good strategically.

07:00Implementation and education

Where is society realistically with AI implementation?

He says we are just at the beginning. He imagines AI assistants handling production functions and being highly personalized, making each person better at their work. AI transforms every industry including education, where teachers with AI will be better than teachers without.

We are just at the beginning of AI implementation.
Teachers with AI will be better teachers.

07:50Human connection

Does human conversation still matter in an AI world?

Schmidt says human contact and connection will be with us for the rest of humanity, even as computers run much of the world. The assistants and knowledge at our fingertips will be profound, making for a very powerful world.

Human connection remains central.
AI assistants will profoundly enhance what we know and do.

Notes

Governments and AI

Schmidt says governments care about two things: winning in AI and the safety of their populations, including whether it can be misused.
They must both invest and regulate, and some handle this balance better than others.

Fears About AI

He acknowledges fears about jobs and misuse have some truth; models have dangers embedded in them.
The industry uses guardrails to stop models answering dangerous questions like how to kill oneself or others.
He frames AI as a generational wave, like the PC, internet, and social media revolutions, taking 10 or 15 years.
It will change medicine, science, conflict, information, and misinformation, mostly for the better.

Missing the Opportunity

His biggest concern is missing the opportunity: an intelligence like a polymath aligned with you is a major change in human productivity.
AI can benefit education, medicine, economic efficiency, wealth generation, strengthening the middle class, lifting people from poverty, and climate change, if done correctly.

Lessons From Social Media

He admits he and nearly all his peers did not foresee social media's harms, blaming the bubble they lived in with similar education, politics, and Western background.
Social media enabling tribalism and misinformation was not the plan.
He has written one book and has another coming out in November on getting ahead of AI's impact on human life.
He raises questions about children having a nonhuman best friend at age five, and states he favors free speech for humans but not for computers.

AI and Warfare

Almost no AI is used on the battlefield now, which he thinks is good.
AI will make war more targeted but also easier, and war will be changed by it.
Inexpensive drones can take out expensive tanks; drone beats tank.
Assumptions about aircraft carriers, submarines, army bases, and tanks are being undermined, and military structures will be very different in a decade.

Saudi Arabia's Position

Saudi Arabia is well positioned: abundant energy, abundant land, and a strong commitment to building.
The world will need gigawatts and gigawatts of data centers, which could be in Saudi.
The internet is borderless, so work can be done there while people live elsewhere.
The key is commitment, and the government is willing to put large amounts of money behind successful investments; he says it is good business and good strategically.

AI in Daily Life and Education

Society is just at the beginning of AI implementation.
He imagines a producer's and director's functions handled by a highly personalized AI assistant, making each person better at what they do.
AI transforms every industry including education; teachers with AI will be better teachers than teachers without.
Human contact and connection will remain for the rest of humanity, while computers run much of the world around us.

Text from the video's own captions. Summary and notes written by AI from the transcript, so check anything important against the recording.