Sundar Pichai Warns ''AI Could Be Harmful If Deployed Wrongly'', Calls For Its Regulation

Needless to say, Artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping the future of humanity across nearly every industry and changing the world around us. Recently, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai expressed his concerns about artificial intelligence, saying that the technology can be ''very harmful'' if deployed wrongly.

In an interview with CBS's “60 Minutes”, Mr Pichai said the negative side of AI gave him restless nights and called for new regulations to govern AI.  “It can be very harmful if deployed wrongly and we don't have all the answers there yet – and the technology is moving fast. So does that keep me up at night? Absolutely,” he said.

When asked if the society is prepared for what's coming, Mr Pichai said, ''You know, there are two ways I think about it. On one hand I feel, no, because you know, the pace at which we can think and adapt as societal institutions, compared to the pace at which the technology's evolving, there seems to be a mismatch.

On the other hand, compared to any other technology, I've seen more people worried about it earlier in its life cycle. So I feel optimistic. The number of people, you know, who have started worrying about the implications, and hence the conversations are starting in a serious way as well.''

He further said that the technology will “impact every product across every company.” When asked what jobs would be disrupted, he said, "Knowledge workers'' such as writers, accountants, architects and, ironically, software engineers. 

The Google CEO added that ''society must quickly adapt with regulations for AI in the economy, laws to punish abuse, and treaties among nations to make AI safe for the world.'' ''And I think we have to be very thoughtful. And I think these are all things society needs to figure out as we move along. It's not for a company to decide,'' Mr Pichai said.

Among the risks of generative AI that Pichai highlighted are so-called deepfake videos. “There have to be consequences for creating deepfake videos which cause harm to society.''

Meanwhile, Google also recently launched an AI-powered chatbot, Bard, in response to ChatGPT. When asked by CBS journalist Scott Pelley why Google had released Bard publicly when he didn't fully understand how it worked, Mr Pichai responded, “Let me put it this way. I don't think we fully understand how a human mind works either.”

He also admitted that Google did not fully understand how its AI technology produced certain responses.

Since its release last year, Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted rivals to launch similar products, and companies to integrate it or similar technologies into their apps and products. Recently, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also shared a blog post, calling the ''development of AI as the most important technological advance in decades.''