Google boss warns 'no company is going to be immune' if AI bubble bursts

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview at Google's California headquarters, he also addressed energy needs, slowing down climate targets, UK investment, the accuracy of his AI models, and the effect of the AI revolution on jobs.

The interview comes as scrutiny on the state of the AI market has never been more intense.

Alphabet shares have doubled in value in seven months to $3.5tn (£2.7tn) as markets have grown more confident in the search giant's ability to fend off the threat from ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

A particular focus is Alphabet's development of specialised superchips for AI that compete with Nvidia, run by Jensen Huang, which recently reached a world first $5tn valuation.

As valuations rise, some analysts have expressed scepticism about a complicated web of $1.4tn of deals being done around OpenAI, which is expected to have revenues this year of less than one thousandth of the planned investment.

The tech giant is also expanding its footprint in the UK. In September, Alphabet announced it was investing in UK artificial intelligence, committing £5bn to infrastructure and research over the next two years.

Mr Pichai said Alphabet will develop "state of the art" research work in the UK including at its key AI unit DeepMind, based in London.

For the first time, he said Google would "over time" take a step that is being pushed for in government to "train our models" in the UK - a move that cabinet ministers believe would cement the UK as the number three AI "superpower" after the US and China.

"We are committed to investing in the UK in a pretty significant way," Mr Pichai said.

However, he also warned about the "immense" energy needs of AI, which made up 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

Mr Pichai said action was needed, including in the UK, to develop new sources of energy and scale up energy infrastructure.

"You don't want to constrain an economy based on energy, and I think that will have consequences," he said.

He also acknowledged that the intensive energy needs of its expanding AI venture meant there was slippage on the company's climate targets, but insisted Alphabet still had a target of achieving net zero by 2030 by investing in new energy technologies.

"The rate at which we were hoping to make progress will be impacted," he said.

AI will also affect work as we know it, Mr Pichai said, calling it "the most profound technology" humankind had worked on.

"We will have to work through societal disruptions," he said, adding that it would also "create new opportunities".

"It will evolve and transition certain jobs, and people will need to adapt," he said. Those who do adapt to AI "will do better".

"It doesn't matter whether you want to be a teacher [or] a doctor. All those professions will be around, but the people who will do well in each of those professions are people who learn how to use these tools."

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