Google's Eric Schmidt: There's no question AI will put jobs at risk, but it's natural

Machine learning technology is now essential to Search, which remains the crown jewel of Google services. Google's most high-profile engineer, Jeff Dean, has said machine learning is the third most important signal, out of hundreds, that determine how Google search results are ranked. Numbers 1 and 2 are a closely-guarded secret. Considering the software being used only developed in 2015, its fast-rising importance has surprised even company insiders. "One of the concerning things is that [machine learning] is so new that even the best engineers don't know the techniques," Schmidt said.