Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR Google CEO Sundar Pichai says if AI bubble pops, “no company is going to be immune, including us.”
Pichai compared AI boom to dot-com bubble of the 1990s, noting “elements of irrationality” in investment activity.
Google parent company Alphabet’s stock price has doubled this year as Google has built out AI efforts.
The breakneck pace of investment in companies developing AI tech over the past few years has many onlookers convinced we’re currently in an AI bubble. Sundar Pichai knows the situation is serious: when the AI bubble bursts, “no company is going to be immune,” the Google CEO told the BBC.
In an interview with the BBC at Google’s headquarters in California, Pichai drew parallels between today’s AI market and the 1990s dot-com boom, during which investment in internet startups reached a fever pitch before a crash saw tech firms lose trillions in market cap and shed tens of thousands of jobs. Back then, “There was clearly a lot of excess investment,” Pichai said, “but none of us would question whether the internet was profound.” Pichai said AI investment is in a similar spot today.
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“I expect AI to be the same,” Pichai told the BBC, gesturing to the technology’s potential to remain relevant after this initial boom subsides. “So I think it’s both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this.” BBC notes that Google parent Alphabet’s stock price has doubled this year amid the AI boom; the company currently has a market capitalization of about $3.5 trillion.
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