Sundar Pichai

the one who made me give up on it. I'm like, no, I didn't. But yeah. The thing that's good about business, I think it excites a whole new generation about technology, which is which is good. I really appreciate well, thank you for doing it, and thank you for coming down to do it. I'm ready to go, and you guys are from Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. Welcome to this edition of Bloombrook Studio. At one point, Oh, I'm Emily Chang, and today my guest is Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

He was born and raised in India and had almost no access to a computer until he got to college Entford University in the heart of Silicon Valley. Just years later, he found himself rising through the ranks of the world's largest search engine. It was Pachai that Google co founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose to run Google and later Alphabet now valued it more than two trillion dollars. It's one of the most powerful companies on the planet.

You grew up in India, you lived through droughts, water was scarce. How has that experience shaped your feelings about the urgency of stopping climate change? You know, I grew up in Chennai, India, and a big part of my childhood was, uh, you know, really pretty severe water scarcity. You know, we would get water trupped in for the streets and standing lines and carry a few buckets of water at home. There was no running order for many years.

And you know, but fast forward a few years ago, you know, Chennai had one in a hundred year flawed uh you know, which was a very extreme event kind of drove home. That combined with a few years ago, waking up to the orange skies here in the Bay Area, seeing the look of concern on my children's faces and having to explain it, you know, all kind of drove

home in a deeply personal way for me. So I think it's the most defining issue we all face, and and you know, definitely something very motivated on working towards. I remember waking up to those orange Skuys too and having to have that same conversation with my kids. Do you think the commitments that cut twenty six went far enough? You know, I'm encouraged by many things. Uh, you know, we have to tip our hat to the people who are working super hard. The issues and the trade offs

are are genuinely difficult. You know, you have to keep the economies growing. Uh, you know, it really matters. And but at the same time, it's a pretty severe, urgent issue. So I are encouraged by the progress. I think it builds on the Paris agreements, so I can see the forward progress. There is the deep anxiety that it all may not be enough, but you know, we have to

be optimistic and keep pushing. Google has set some aggressive targets to run entirely on clean energy, to be the first tech giant to do so twenty four hours a day. How confident are you that when you look back on this time, let's say, a decade from now, you'll be able to say Google did enough to help save the world. We are putting so much energy and resource into it. It's always been kind of a founding value for us.

We've been carbon neutral since two thousand seven. We've been matching our energy consumption with renewable energy over the past few years. So this, you know, we are not pushing. It's a moon shot. To be seven carbon free. That means every search you do, every email you send, that we can do it carbon free. We were at sixty one percent in the number is now sixty We've set our goals to be pent by and to do it globally. That means we have to solve new things which we

haven't done before. Wind and solar alone won't be enough. We just started Geo Tomlin, Nevada. We will be investing in newer technologies, including carbon capture, etcetera over time. So that's what excites me. We are a technology company at heart, so part of there are many answers to this problem. Some of it is that we're going to have to innovate our way out of it, and you know, we want to push as hard as possible in doing that.

Our Bloomberg New Economy Forum is happening this year in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific region is one of the fastest growing internet economies on the planet. Where do you see the most room, the most opportunity for Google to grow there? Uh, you know, it's such a fitting time frame, you know, I'm glad you're focused on the region. It's the most vibrant region we see. It's our twenty a year since we opened our office in Tokyo. It was the first office outside the Bay Area. Um, you have two and

a half billion people on the Internet. There are many areas in which they are there leap frogging trends which are here and embracing the future. Digital payments is a great example. So many of our products originated from a pack Google Maps, Google Pay. A lot of our journey to bring computing to more people is playing out in

Asia as well. I am excited about also the work we're doing through cloud because the companies that are rapidly transforming themselves digitally a chance to provide that is something very exciting for us. So super dynamic region. Clad. I feel like we are learning as Google being in the region, and so I think it will transform the first ten years, I would have said we took products here and brought

it to a pack. Over the past few years, we're beginning to build things there and some of our future global products will be a pack first and the rest of the world later. You can't talk about a pack without talking about China, and you're facing stiff competition from Chinese tech giants there and beyond. What should US policymakers know about competing with China? You know, there's a lot

of conversations about US and China. The competition is feares when you look at areas like AI and quantum computing, where we are investing a lot. Uh, you know, the Chinese companies are neck to neck. What I I think about you know, I was encouraged by the news coming out of Glasgow about the U. S. China agreement on climate. To me, while we talk about all the all areas where we are competing, some of the biggest areas which

are common challenges for all of humanity. The pandemic was one AI and AI safety over time will be a shed one obviously, Sustainabilities another area like that. So I think these are all areas in which the countries can come together. And so I think that's the way by which we think about as you know, when we compete on the Internet, and there may be different visions of how the Internet plays out. So I see opportunities both sides.

What are the chances that Google Search will ever come back to China or that Google Cloud would ever come to China. Today we don't provide most of our signed in services in China, and I don't see that changing. But you know, there are ways, as I said, in areas like AI or sustainability, I think there will be opportunities for us to work together. Through cloud. We will support multinational companies which have presents everywhere, and so maybe

there are opportunities to work that way as well. AI is advancing at an astonishing rate, and it is hard to understand sometimes what this really means in concrete terms. How will our lives look different, let's say ten years from now as a result of AI. You know, done correctly, you know in many ways it's going to be helpful to you. You'll take it for granted the same way today. For example, in India, over one third of the queries on many phones come through voice. That is something people

take for granted. You can do it so over time, you'll expect to speak and be able to understand any language in the world, and you know those are always it's going to make it better. You may go to a doctor's office and go through a scan, and the system may be prioritizing for the radiologists so that they don't miss some important things, maybe giving them a second opinion. You know. So these are all ways in which it

will seamlessly start playing a role. And I think, well, you know, we'll see the efforts of that you mentioned if done correctly. And there are concerns. There are fears that AI will replicate the worst of society, even under Google's own roof. From your own researchers, what scares you most about AI? What keeps you up at night? It's the most profound thing we're working on as humanity, And and any time you're developing technology, there is a dual site to it. I think the journey of humanity is

harnessing the benefits while minimizing the downsides. The good thing with AI s it's both going to take time. I think I've seen more focus on the downsides early on than most of the technology we've developed. So in some ways, I'm encouraged by how much concern there is, and you're right, even within Google, you know, you know, people think about it deeply. We publish a lot of research that are I think it's more important that there are outside academic institution, governments,

nonprofits looking at this issue as well. So I think it's it'll it will be an issue which you will have a lot of attention, which gives me a lot of comfort as well. Coming up on Bloomberg Studio at one point, Oh, how Google ceo is reflecting on the continuous controversy it is surrounding one of its biggest rivals, Facebook, And if Facebook is betting on the metaverse, what is

Google's next trillion dollar opportunity? More with Alphabet and Google ceo, so dark Chi Coming up on this edition of Bloomberg Studio at one point, Oh, stay with us. Google just hit a two trillion dollar market cap, Alphabet, I should say, where is the next trillion dollars going to come from? You know, I've always felt, uh, you know, your market cap valuation is an effect of the value you provide, and I feel fortunate our mission is timeless. Uh, you know,

there's more need to organize information than ever before. I still feel searches our biggest moon shot as a company. You know, people will want radically more conversational experiences. They will want what we call multimodal experiences. They may speak to search, they may look at some thing and ask what the information is. Being able to adapt to all that and evolve, search will continue to be the biggest opportunity. We are so excited about the YouTube cloud, our our

hardware products, school Play. So we're building a diverse set of businesses. But and underlying all of it is the investments we are making in AI. You know, we've invested hundred billion dollars in R and D in the past five years, and so applying AI in a deep way is probably where we will create the biggest opportunity ahead. Microsoft is making some big acquisitions. Apple's anti ad tracking technology is shaking up the industry. What do you make

of these competitive moves. Your competitors say they're on the right side of history. Are they? I look at the fact that there are three billion people who have access to knowledge of their fingertips. I look at the opportunity we provide. I look at the skills people are learning through YouTube. You know, I feel it everywhere when I go talk to people and and providing access to information and knowledge. I think we'll end up being on the

right side of history as well. Your predecessor, Eric Schmidt told me that he feels the latest Facebook revelations are disturbing. Google also has access to massive amounts of our data. Why should half the world's population, more than half the world's population trust Google to do the right thing? We are trying to do more with less data. One of the biggest changes we made was making order delete the default setting for new users signing in, and now over

two billion users have their data continuously being deleted. Look, we rely on trust for people. You know, every day when people come to Google, uh, you know, they placed their trust in us in vulnerable moments, maybe a health issue in which they are trying to understand. You know, there's no more important responsibility we have than doing right by the trust. You know, when when we provide Gmail to journ list and realize that the accounts maybe under

attack by by an authority in government. I mean, that's what you know motivates us to make sure be privacy, be security, be trust. We're doing the right thing. Over time, regulation will have an important role to play here. I think privacy regulation is important. In the areas like AI regulation will be important, and so I think, you know,

those will be part of the answers as well. The Facebook fallout that Instagram can be toxic two teens, for example, has this raised more or new concerns for you about the impact of technology, tech, addiction, algorithms, YouTube even on

our children and their development and their mental health. I mean, you're a parent, and you also have a lot of power over how this plays out, you know, I mean, like you, you know, bringing kids up in this modern digital world is something I think all parents are anxious about, rightfully, So I think, you know, it's part of why a few years ago when YouTube, you know, we we were exposed to a set of concerns. You know, we invested

it became our number one priority to work hard at it. Uh. The reason YouTube invested so much in developing YouTube Kids as a safe destination for young children. So on, the technology is going to play a big role in helping give children the next wave of opportunity as well. So

the answer is to develop it responsibly. We have changed our balance in these areas and saying we think about content responsibility first and then the pace of development or new features in areas like YouTube, and so that's how we approached it for a while. Facebook and Microsoft are all in on the metaverse. What do you think about the metaverse? What's Google's metaphorse strategy. It's always been obvious to me that computing, over time will adapt to people,

and people adapting to computers. You know, you won't always interact with computing in a black rectangle in front of you. So just like you speak to people you see interact, computers will become more immersive. They will be there when you need it to be. So I've always been excited about the future of UH immersive computing, ambient computing, a R and count as the metaverse? Is that what that is? Metaors is? I think it means different things to different people.

The way I think about it is evolving computing in an immersive way with augmented reality as part of that. There will be many experiences, some of which will be immersive, interactive virtual worlds. You know, which is which is a meta worse concept? And you know, but I think this doesn't belong to any company, right, I mean, this is the evolution of Internet, and you know, the web, the Internet,

all of it will continue to evolve. Google was famous for its campuses where you could go and never leave, you had everything you ever wanted. Now you've said they can be flexible, they can work from home, they can work at the office, they can be hybrid, they can work remotely permanently. Perhaps are you committed to really letting them do this forever? And if so, how does that change the future of work and society. Look, we've we've we've really embraced that, the fact that the future is

going to be flexible. Google. We've always tried to give you known agency to our employees, but we do realize the importance of bringing people together, the creativity, community and collaboration that comes with it. So the balance we are striking as is this notion of three two and but we're giving the strength of our companies. We have more locations than most of the companies, so we're giving people choice to move anywhere in the world four weeks. They

can work from anywhere. We're gonna accommodate of our workforce to be remote over time. So we're going to embrace that flexibility and forever forever. Yeah, And you know, we're committed to it through it all. It forces us to sign better products. And since people use Google workspace to run their companies, I think gives us a chance to innovate and bring all that out. Uh, you know, I think there is so much value in giving people more

flexibility between their personal and professional lives. And I think it will lead to people being happier. And I think companies can be successful in that model. And so we're trying to get the best of both worlds, but embrace the flexibility and and and and see where we go up next. The war for tech talent is down more competitive than ever, and Google is offering more flexibility to its workers than ever before. But Elon Musk says big

tech is a place where talent goes to die. How to send our pati respond to that, We'll also ask him to make a choice. That's next. This is Bloomberg Studio. At one point out you have presided over Google through massive social movements that reverberated in and outside the company. What have you learned as CEO since the walkout? For me? You know, it was it was a moment. I think it changed the company for the better. Uh, you know we've always been committed. It gave us an insight on

what more we could do. We undertook deep commitments and the biggest you know, overall and diversity and inclusion. I think if you're committed and you actually put in the effort behind it, you can make a difference. Now we have stated clear goals, we are on track to meet us meet those goals. But it forced us to think about new answers. So for example, you know, tech companies used to talk about the pipeline problem, but we are now going to places where the talented we're working much harder.

So going to Atlanta, going to d C, going to Chicago, going to New York. That's improving our diversity and representation at all levels. The war for talent is even more competitive now in this new world. What are you offering? Elon Musk has said big tech is a place where talent goes to die. How do you respond to that? Okay, I look at the fact that you know, we are

looking to hire thirty thou people next year. I look at the impact we have on many people coming and working uh in the latest cutting edge things, and many people come and people leave Google. We are proud of people who have left Google that are I think there are over two thousand companies that have been started by whom we call as zooplers. I'm equally proud of that, right.

I think we are one part of a big, big system, and you know, I think I think I'm proud of the role we playing bringing in people and the impact they have over time. And that was said, world, All right, that's most of the heavy stuff out of the way. We're gonna do some rapid fire just to get to know you a little bit better. Um, you said you'd pick up some new hobbies in the pandemic. What did you start? You know, pizza? Uh, you know, cooking pizza, just learning to cook, which I was never good at.

I've gotten a little bit better. Cricket or soccer slash football. Wow, it's tough both, Please don't make okay? Um Square game or ted Lasso. I watched both. Ted Lasso is much more common, you know, and so I'd rather take ted Lasso for word scoot games anyday. I know you're a voracious reader. So what's the last good book that you read? You know, I've I've been on a podcast bench, so a lot more podcasts than books nowadays. Okay, favorite videos you watch on YouTube with your kids, a lot of

music videos. Music videos. Uh, this whole notion where creators are watching other things and commenting on it. It's a trend which my kids are really into and I kind of gotten used to it now, so you know, watching other games. Let's as some phenomenon screen time policy that's worked for you as a parent, and what's what's not worked. You know, I've kind of given agency to my kids.

The only thing I tell them is that I can look at their digital well being once in a while with them, and and so that I asked them to show it to me and they show it on their phone. So um, you know, so that that's pretty much the only thing. So beyond that, you know, it's agency and and uh, you know, talking to them about it and making sure we're spending time doing other things and making sure they develop good habits. Basically, um, metaverse or real

world done correctly. You know, you shouldn't you shouldn't feel feel the need to make a choice. You know, you always want to be present in the real world, and when you feel the need to do something, you want to do that. But you know, I do think presents and the realness of the real world will end up mapping for him once for a long time. Do you own any crypto? H? I wish I did. I've dabbled in it, but you know, in and out, in and out, okay, um larreyn sergain. I'm not gonna make you choose. How

many times do we ta talk to them? Uh? You know? I I talked to them regularly. Uh. You know. It kind of ebbs and flows, uh, you know. And so there are times we get excited about something and we spend a lot of time talking it through. But it depends on you know, what would I need? A piece of advice you wish you had in your twenties and a piece of advice you wish you had in your forties.

Twenties would be, you know, being patient. Um, you know, I think when you're young, you're very impatient, which is a great thing. But sometimes you do amazing things by slowing down and being really focused and doing it over a period of time. And so I would advise the young you know, the younger version of me, to be more patient. Maybe at forty, I would say, you know, when I look at climate and I want want all

of us to be patient. So you know, I feel like when there's an urgency to its something, and I think the world needs to be impatient. So that's advice I would give to an older version of me. How much do you personally wrestle with the decisions that you have to make? And how much longer do you see yourself being the CEO of Alphabet not just Alphabet but

also Google. Yeah, on the look on the first one, there are moments we all have to make tough decisions, and you know, and some decisions way on me and but I it's a privilege to do it. I have very good people helping me think, think things through. So I think the combination makes it all, you know. Fine, On the second thing, I am look at I'm so energized by the things we need to do. You know, I didn't have much access to computing growing up. It changed my life a lot. The one laptop or child

goal really motivated me to come into technology. And and when I look at last week US launching an affordable smartphone in India, the chance to bring the next Relion uses in Asia and in Africa online, that gives me a lot of energy we'll be watching from Afar Sundar Pacha. I thank you so much for joining us. It's question mine are not I have four so nine six four two. I don't know how you do it. I heard what

you told. I'm all rodging about developing good responsibility for your kids in their own tech habits, and so it's like, okay, it sounds like it's like a good approach, and it feels like you're giving them more agency, but you also have some control. Yeah, and you know it's a battle. I don't want to take get it right, but you know, I think they also need to be savvier. I think every generation feels so uncomfortable that the next generations shift

and every way. But um, like, if you don't make them native and figure it out, I think because they have to solid one day without you. But yeah, I get stressed out to like everyone else. My kids were so excited they discovered Google docs, and they would think they were being so devious and davous. They would say hello and they'd send a doc, like laughing hysterically and like all right, okay, so many more possibilities. But I'm

comfortable with that level of engagement. Bloomberg Studio One point Oh is produced by Lauren Ellis and edited by Matt Soto. Our managing editor is Daniel Culbertson. Special thanks for this episode to Mallory Abelhausen, Catherine Glass, and Stephen Craig. If you like Studio one point Oh, please subscribe and leave a review. They really help and I love reading them. Hi'm Emily Chang, your host and executive producer.