SaMedia, Dec. 13 — Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the company’s long-term investments in artificial intelligence are beginning to pay off. With breakthroughs in quantum computing and multimodal AI models like Gemini 2.0, he lauded the company as a leader in the next wave of technological innovation.
In an interview with Reed Albergotti of Semafor, Pichai reflected on the company’s AI-first strategy, which he set in motion in 2015. “We said we would do a deep, full-stack approach to AI, all the way from world-class research to building models for developers,” he said. “That kind of deep investment — and I felt AI is very profound — it cuts across everything we do as a company.”
Pichai pointed to the recent release of Gemini 2.0, a multimodal AI model capable of processing images, audio, and text simultaneously, as a key milestone. “With Gemini 2.0, we have a multimodal live API, so now it does native image and audio output,” he said. “That’s an example of a breakthrough.”
The CEO also highlighted Google’s progress in quantum computing, comparing it to the early days of AI in the 2010s. “Quantum, to me, looks like where AI was in the 2010s,” he said. “Few people know about it, but you’re working on it methodically.”
Pichai emphasized that while early progress in AI was driven by scaling compute power, the next phase will require deeper technical innovation. “Getting our models to work with up to 2 million tokens as input length, that’s long context,” he said. “That’s an example of a breakthrough.”
The company’s multimodal approach, Pichai argued, is essential for advancing toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). “As humans, our experience with the world is incredibly multimodal, so it’s always made sense,” he said. “This is why we did Google Lens for search. You shouldn’t always have to type. If you could point your phone to something you’re looking at, ask the question.”
Pichai also addressed concerns about AI safety, noting that Google is investing heavily in ensuring the technology is developed responsibly. Looking ahead, Pichai said Google is focused on expanding the use of AI in search and other products.
Despite the rapid pace of innovation, Pichai acknowledged that progress is becoming harder as the field matures. Pichai also discussed the company’s commitment to sustainability, highlighting Google’s use of geothermal energy in its data centers. “We already have a data center partially powered by geothermal,” he said. “And our top data centers, many of them operate 90% carbon-free basis in terms of its energy use.”
As Alphabet continues to push the boundaries of AI and quantum computing, Pichai said the company is focused on delivering practical benefits to users. He said his goal is to commercially apply quantum to tackle some use cases in five years.
For Pichai, the recent flurry of announcements — from Nobel Prizes to new products — is a testament to Google’s long-term vision. “The innovation pipeline feels very, very strong,” he said. “We’re just getting started.”
