Google's chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also "negative consequences." Sundar Pichai's comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. "There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this," Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussel-based think tank. He noted that there's an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, "international alignment" of any eventual rules will be critical.

Google's chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also "negative consequences." Sundar Pichai's comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider placing limits on how artificial intelligence is used. "There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this," Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussels think tank. He said there's an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, "international alignment" of any eventual rules will be critical.

Pichai spoke on the same day he was scheduled to meet the EU's powerful competition regulator, Margrethe Vestager. She's also due to meet Microsoft President Brad Smith separately on Monday. Vestager has in previous years hit the Silicon Valley giant with multibillion-dollar fines for allegedly abusing its market dominance to choke off competition. After being reappointed for a second term last autumn with expanded powers over digital technology policies, Vestager has now set her sights on artificial intelligence, and is drawing up rules on its ethical use. Pichai's comments suggest the company may be hoping to head off a broad-based crackdown by the EU on the technology.

Google's chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also "negative consequences." Sundar Pichai's comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. "There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this," Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussel-based think tank. He noted that there's an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, "international alignment" of any eventual rules will be critical.

Google's chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also "negative consequences." Sundar Pichai's comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. "There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this," Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussel-based think tank. He noted that there's an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, "international alignment" of any eventual rules will be critical.

The chief executive of Google has called for international cooperation on regulating artificial intelligence technology to ensure it is'harnessed for good'. Sundar Pichai said that while regulation by individual governments and existing rules such as GDPR can provide a'strong foundation' for the regulation of AI, a more coordinated international effort is'critical' to making global standards work. The CEO said that history is full of examples of how'technology's virtues aren't guaranteed' and that with technological innovations come side effects. These range from internal combustion engines, which allowed people to travel beyond their own areas but also caused more accidents, to the internet, which helped people connect but also made it easier for misinformation to spread. These lessons teach us'we need to be clear-eyed about what could go wrong' in the development of AI-based technologies, he said.