Google’s Sundar Pichai Says AI Is As Big a Risk as Climate Change

Even as his own company races to develop next-gen AI technology, Google’s CEO warned Thursday that the technology could pose as much risk to humans as climate change.

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit in San Francisco, Google CEO Sundar Pichai compared the potential risk and impact of AI on the world to climate change, adding that, like the climate, AI requires global action.

“AI advances will get out to all the countries and so it’s naturally the kind of technology that — I don’t think there’s any unilateral safety to be had,” Pichai said. 

“In some ways, it’s like climate change and the planet… We all share a planet. I think that’s true for AI. [That’s why] you have to start building the frameworks globally,” he added.

Pichai’s remarks echo several of his peers in Silicon Valley in pushing the “responsible” development of AI. Earlier this week, more than two dozen tech investment and venture capital firms signed an agreement to make the companies they fund follow “responsible” AI principles.

Meanwhile, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has compared AI to nuclear weapons even as the company seeks to develop ever more powerful versions of the tech.