Google's AI bet was built before public opinion shifted

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 51:20

   When you and I hung out last year and took a walk, I remember, I don't think we talked about this, but I remember, you know, outside of that, seeing dozens of articles written by analysts and experts and so on that Sundar Pichai should step down because the perception was that Google was definitively losing the AI race, has lost its magic touch in the rapidly evolving technological landscape. And now, a year later, it's crazy.

2. 51:54

   You show this plot of all the things that were shipped over the past year. It's incredible. And Gemini Pro is winning across many benchmarks and products as we sit here today. So take me through that experience when there's all these articles saying, you're the wrong guy to lead Google through this. Google is lost, it's done, it's over to today where Google is winning again. What were some low points during that time?

3. 52:22

   Look, I mean, lots to unpack. You know, obviously, like, I mean, the main bet I made as a CEO was to really, you know, make sure the company was approaching everything in a AI first way, really, you know, setting ourselves up to develop AGI responsibly, right. And, and, and make sure we're putting out products, which, which embodies that things that are very, very useful for people. So look, I, I knew even through moments like that last year, you know, I had a good sense of what we were building internally, right?

4. 53:07

   So I'd already made, you know, many important decisions, you know, bringing together teams of the caliber of brain and deep mind and setting up Google DeepMind. There were things like we made the decision to invest in TPUs 10 years ago. So we knew we were scaling up and building big models. Anytime you're in a situation like that, a few aspects. I'm good at tuning out noise, right? Separating signal from noise.

5. 53:39

   Do you scuba dive? Like, have you? No. It's amazing. Like, I'm not good at it, but I've done it a few times. But sometimes you jump in the ocean, it's so choppy. But you go down one feet under, it's the calmest thing in the entire universe, right? So there's a version of that, right? Like, you know, running Google, you know, you may as well be coaching Barcelona or Real Madrid, right? Like, you know, you have a bad season.

6. 54:11

   So there are aspects to that. But, you know, like, look, I'm good at tuning out the noise. Shout out for signals, you know, it's important to separate the signal from the noise. So there are good people sometimes making good points outside. So you want to listen to it. You want to take that feedback in. But, you know, internally, like, you know, you're making a set of consequential decisions. As leaders, you're making a lot of decisions.

7. 54:38

   Many of them are like inconsequential. Like it feels like, but over time you learn that. most of the decisions you're making on a day-to-day basis doesn't matter. Like, you have to make them, and you're making them just to keep things moving. But you have to make a few consequential decisions, right? And we had set up the right teams, right leaders. We had world-class researchers. We were training Gemini.

8. 55:10

   internally there are factors which were for example outside people may not have appreciated I mean TPUs are amazing but we had to ramp up TPUs too that took time right and and to scale actually having enough TPUs to get the compute needed but I could see internally the trajectory we were on. And B, I was so excited internally about the possibility. To me, this moment felt like one of the biggest opportunities ahead for us as a company, that the opportunity space ahead over the next decade, next 20 years is bigger than what has happened in the past. And I thought