Editor’s Note: Today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the world leaders gathered at AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India. The following is a printout of the remarks, which have been prepared for delivery.
Thank you Prime Minister Modi and honorable leaders. It is wonderful to be back in India. Every time I visit I am struck by the pace of change and today is no different.
When I was a student, I often took the Coromandel Express train from Chennai up to IIT Kharagpur. To reach there we passed Visakhapatnam — Vizag. I remember it was a quiet and modest coastal town, full of potential.
Now, in the same city, Google is setting up a full-stack AI hub, part of our $15 billion infrastructure investment in India. Once complete, this hub will house gigawatt-scale computing and a new international undersea cable gateway, bringing jobs and the benefits of cutting-edge artificial intelligence to people and businesses across India.
New era of discovery
Sitting on that train, I never imagined that Vizag would become a global AI hub.
Just as I could not have imagined that one day I would be spending time with teams figuring out how to place data centers in space…
Or take my parents on a fully autonomous road trip in San Francisco.
When I saw a Waymo drive through the eyes of my 83-year-old father, I saw progress in a whole new light.
Of course he said he’d be more impressed if it worked on India’s busy roads – still working on that one, Dad.
This progress shows what is possible when humanity dreams big.
And no technology makes me dream bigger than AI.
It’s the biggest platform change in our lifetime.
We are on the cusp of hyper-advances and new discoveries that can help emerging economies leapfrog existing gaps.
But that result is neither guaranteed nor automatic. To build AI that is truly useful for everyone, we must pursue it boldly, approach it responsibly, and work through this defining moment together.
Get fat
Why fat?
Because AI can improve billions of lives and solve some of the toughest problems in science.
For fifty years, predicting protein structures was a major challenge – and a blind spot that stopped drug discovery.
Demis Hassabis and his team at Google DeepMind asked a bold question: “how could we use AI to solve this?”
That question led to AlphaFold. This breakthrough didn’t just win a Nobel Prize; it condensed decades of research into a database now open to the world. Today, over three million researchers in more than 190 countries use it to develop malaria vaccines, combat antibiotic resistance and much more.
Isomorphic Labs is taking this further into drug discovery, reinventing what it takes to bring life-saving medicine faster with AI.
And we’re asking similarly bold questions across the scientific stack, from cataloging DNA disease markers to building AI agents that act as true partners in the scientific method.
We must be equally bold in tackling problems in regions that have lacked access to technology.
Take El Salvador, for example, where Google has partnered with the government to bring AI-powered diagnosis and affordable treatment to thousands who could never afford to see a doctor.
Or in India, where our work together helps farmers protect their livelihoods in the face of monsoons. Last summer, for the first time, the Indian government sent AI-powered forecasts to millions of farmers, made possible in part by our neural GCM model.
I see linguistic inclusion as another exciting ambition. In Ghana, we partner with universities and NGOs to expand research and open source tools across more than twenty African languages.
We need this bold thinking in more places to tackle more issues across health, education, economic opportunity and more.
Be responsible
Technology offers incredible benefits, but we need to make sure everyone has access to them.
We cannot allow the digital divide to become an AI divide.
This means investing in computer infrastructure and connectivity.
I mentioned our Vizag investment and we have others in Thailand, Malaysia and more. We are also building a large network of undersea fiber optic cables, including four new systems between the US and India, as part of our America-India Connect Initiative.
Responsibility also means navigating profound economic shifts. AI will undeniably reshape the workforce – automating some roles, evolving others and creating entirely new careers. Twenty years ago, the concept of a professional “YouTube Creator” did not exist; today there are upwards of 60 million around the world.
Training is essential. We’ve trained 100 million people in digital skills, and our new Google AI Professional Certificate will help people master AI in their jobs, available globally.
Finally, trust is the foundation of adoption. We’ve created tools like SynthID that are used by journalists and citizen fact-checkers globally to help verify the authenticity of the content you read and watch.
Work through this moment together
But no matter how bold we are, or how responsible, we won’t realize the full benefits of AI unless we work together.
Governments have a crucial role. It includes, as regulatory authorities, setting important traffic rules and managing important risks.
And also as innovators – bringing AI to public services that improve lives and accelerate the adoption of these technologies for people and businesses.
There are glimpses of this from around the globe:
From the Ugandan government using artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to pinpoint priority areas for electrification… to more efficiently fixing potholes for residents in Memphis, Tennessee, using artificial intelligence scans of road surfaces from buses. Tech companies must also step up – building products that boost knowledge, creativity and productivity to help people achieve their dreams.
And most importantly, we also need businesses of all sizes to think about this – to leverage AI to innovate and transform their businesses and sectors, and to empower and empower employees.
We have the opportunity to improve lives at once on a generational scale.
I know we have the ability to do this. And if I look at the leaders here today, I believe that we also have the will.
Now we must do the work together.
Thanks.