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Decoder · 2 min · May 27, 2025

Pichai sees robotics as the next major AI platform shift

Sundar Pichai identifies robotics as a major next step once AI moves beyond online tools. He points to Waymo as an early robot, while describing general-purpose robotics as the next threshold.

Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai is CEO of Google and Alphabet.

Helped build Google Toolbar and Chrome, then led Google from 2015 and Alphabet from 2019.

  • Nilay Patel, Host · Editor-in-chief, The Verge

    Helped start The Verge in 2011 and has hosted Decoder since 2020.

About this segment

Sundar Pichai identifies robotics as a major next step once AI moves beyond online tools. He points to Waymo as an early robot, while describing general-purpose robotics as the next threshold.

From “Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the future of search, AI agents, and selling Chrome”, May 27, 2025. Watch the full episode

“So that aha moment of robotics, I think when it happens, that's going to be the next big thing we will all grapple with, right?”
Sundar Pichaiat 40:07 · Decoder40:07

Takeaways

  1. He sees robotics as AI's next platform phase.
  2. Waymo already counts as a robot in his framing.
  3. General-purpose robotics is the bigger milestone.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 7:36Google invests before it can see the next big business2:51
  2. 28:48Agents will force businesses to choose how they participate5:54
  3. 21:08Google says AI search will keep sending traffic to the webPro pick 6:15
  4. 4:10AI could let far more people create software and media3:48
  5. 10:41Google expects smart glasses to reach developers before mass adoption2:10
  6. 34:19Google says individual pressure will not change search rankings2:57

  7. 38:40Pichai sees robotics as the next major AI platform shift2:23

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Transcript

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

  1. 38:53

    What do you think the marker is for the next phase of the platform shift after this one? We open by talking about we're in a... Second phase. What's the marker for the final phase? Or the third phase? Of the platform shift, you mean? Yeah. Of the AI platform? What are you looking for as the next marker? The real thing about AI, which I think why I've always called it more profound, is, you know, self-improving technology, right?

  2. 39:13

    And, you know, having watched AlphaGo, you know, start from scratch, not knowing how to play Go and, you know, within a couple hours or four hours be better than a top level human players. And in eight hours, you know, no human can ever ask for it to play against it. Right. So and that's the essence of the technology, obviously, in a deep way. So I think, look, I think there's so much ahead on the opportunity side.

  3. 39:43

    You know, I'm blown away by the ability to discover new drugs, you know, completely change how we treat diseases like cancer over time, et cetera. You know, the opportunity is there. The creative power, which I talked about, which we're putting in everyone's hands. I think the next generation of kids, everyone can program and build. If you think of something, you can create it. I think, I don't think we have comprehended what that means, but that's going to be true.

  4. 40:12

    The part which the next phase of the shift, which is going to be really meaningful is when this translates into the physical world through robotics, right? So that aha moment of robotics, I think when it happens, that's going to be the next big thing we will all grapple with, right? Today, they are all online and you're doing things with it. But, you know, one hand, you know, today, I think of Waymo as a robot, right?

  5. 40:36

    So we are running around, driving around a robot, but I'm talking more general purpose robot. And, you know, and when AI creates that magical moment with robotics, I think that'll be a big platform shift as well. I'm looking forward to it. Next year, we're going to do this with glasses and robots. It's going to be great.