Google CEO Sundar Pichai just revealed that AI now generates more than a quarter of new code for its products, according to a company earnings call transcribed by Ars Technica. In other words, AI tools are already having an absolutely mammoth impact on the development of software. Pichai did say that human programmers oversee the computer-generated code, which is something. The CEO noted that AI coding helps with "boosting productivity and efficiency," ensuring that engineers "do more and move faster." According to Stack Overflow's 2024 Developer Survey, over 75 percent of respondents are already using or are "planning to use" AI tools to assist with software development.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the company's recent issues with its AI-powered Gemini image generation tool after it started overcorrecting for diversity in historical images. He called the turn of events "unacceptable" and said that the company's "working around the clock" on a fix, according to an internal employee memo published by Semafor. "No AI is perfect, especially at this emerging stage of the industry's development, but we know the bar is high for us and we will keep at it for however long it takes," Pichai wrote to staffers. "And we'll review what happened and make sure we fix it at scale." Pichai remains optimistic regarding the future of the Gemini chatbot, formerly called Bard, noting that the team has already "seen substantial improvement on a wide range of prompts." The image generation aspect of Gemini will remain paused until a fix is fully worked out.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai faces one of his biggest tests as the leader of the search giant, as he balances the need to respond to the threat from chatbots such as ChatGPT--developed by the Microsoft Corp.-backed startup OpenAI--with investor pressure on the Alphabet Inc. company to cut costs. I think a lot of people are wondering, is Google moving fast enough to capture this moment in AI and is Google set up to do that?

ChatGPT, OpenAI's recently launched conversational bot which can write clear, simple sentences has become the talk of the town lately. Despite being in the test-only preview phase, OpenAI's new ChatGPT has compelled CEO Sundar Pichai-led Google's management to issue a "code red." The company may be on the verge of a technological shift that could completely transform it, a worry that permeates Silicon Valley and all things technological, reported The New York Times. Even though ChatGPT has only been available to the public for three weeks, the NYT report stated that despite occasionally producing harmful and false information, the bot has forced Google to create a rival in order to counter the "first serious threat to its main search business." Since its public launch, the platform has received over a million visitors.

Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24. Google's chief executive officer has left no doubt about how important he thinks artificial intelligence will be to humanity. "AI is one of the most profound things we're working on as humanity. It's more profound than fire or electricity," Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. Alphabet, which owns Google, has had to grapple with its role in the development of AI, including managing employee revolts against its work on the technology for the U.S. government.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is calling for governments around the world to regulate artificial intelligence, saying the sensitive technology should not be used to "support mass surveillance or violate human rights." However, Pichai -- the top executive at Google as well as its parent company Alphabet -- also argued that governments should not go too far as they work to rein in high-stakes technologies like facial recognition and self-driving vehicles. His speech in Europe and companion op-ed come as Europe weighs new ethics rules for artificial intelligence and the White House urges a light-touch approach to regulating technology. "There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated," Pichai wrote in the Financial Times. "It is too important not to. The only question is how to approach it."

Alphabet's CEO has urged the US and EU to co-ordinate regulatory approaches on artificial intelligence (AI), calling their alignment "critical". In a rare public speech in Brussels on Monday at an event hosted by European economic think-tank Bruegel, Sundar Pichai, who is also CEO of Google, said "there is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated", but that "we don't have to start from scratch" with entirely new rules in some cases. His comments come weeks before the EU is set to unveil its plans to legislate the technology, which could include new legally binding requirements for AI developers in "high-risk sectors", such as health care and transport, according to an early draft obtained by Bloomberg. The new rules could require companies to be transparent about how they build their systems. While in Brussels, Pichai was also due to meet Margrethe Vestager, the competition chief responsible for more than €8bn of antitrust fines levied against Google.

WASHINGTON – Questions on privacy, data collection, China, Russia --and especially political bias -- dominated Google CEO Sundar Pichai's grilling before Congress Tuesday. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy opened the House Judiciary Committee hearing by noting a "widening gap of distrust" between tech companies and the American people. He asked whether tech companies are "serving as instruments of freedom or instruments of control" in the U.S. and beyond. He also expressed concerns that Google's business practices may have been influenced by employees' political bias against conservatives. The question of bias has dogged tech companies for years, but there has been no credible evidence that political leanings factor into Google's search algorithm.

If you were hoping that Google chief Sundar Pichai would shed more light on his company's potential censored search engine for China... well, you'll mostly be disappointed. Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline grilled Pichai on the recently acknowledged Dragonfly project and mostly encountered attempts to downplay the significance of the engine. The Google exec stressed there were "no plans" to launch a search engine for China, and that Dragonfly was an "internal effort" and "limited" in scope. Pichai added that Google was "currently not in discussions" with Chinese officials. He also provided a non-committal answer when asked if Google would promise not to create a tool enabling Chinese surveillance.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has acknowledged publicly for the first time that the tech giant is considering a search engine for China, saying it could offer'better information' to people than rival services. Speaking at the Wired 25th anniversary conference late Monday, Pichai said Google leaders'feel obliged to think hard' about China despite criticism over the possibly of cooperating with Chinese censorship. 'We are always balancing a set of values,' he said, while adding that'we also follow the rule of law in every country.' Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed questions about China and the company's work with the US military at the Wired 25th anniversary conference in San Francisco Pichai described Project Dragonfly, which has drawn criticism from Google employees, lawmakers and human rights activists, as an effort to learn about what Google could offer if it resumed its search operations in China. 'It turns out we would be able to serve well over 99 percent of the (search) queries,' he said onstage in a question-and-answer session.