Don’t blindly trust what AI tells you, Google boss tells BBC

Individuals shouldn’t “blindly belief” every part AI instruments inform them, the boss of Google’s dad or mum firm Alphabet advised the BBC.

In an unique interview, chief govt Sundar Pichai stated that AI fashions are “liable to errors” and urged folks to make use of them alongside different instruments.

Mr Pichai stated it highlighted the significance of getting a wealthy data ecosystem, moderately than solely counting on AI know-how.

“This is the reason folks additionally use Google search, and we’ve different merchandise which are extra grounded in offering correct data.”

Whereas AI instruments have been useful “if you wish to creatively write one thing”, Mr Pichai stated folks “must study to make use of these instruments for what they’re good at, and never blindly belief every part they are saying”.

He advised the BBC: “We take satisfaction within the quantity of labor we put in to present us as correct data as attainable, however the present state-of-the-art AI know-how is liable to some errors.”

The tech world has been awaiting the most recent launch of Google’s shopper AI mannequin, Gemini 3.0, which is beginning to win again market share from ChatGPT.

From Could this 12 months, Google started introducing a brand new “AI Mode” into its search, integrating its Gemini chatbot which is aimed at giving users the experience of talking to an expert.

On the time, Mr Pichai stated the mixing of Gemini with search signalled a “new part of the AI platform shift”.

The transfer can be a part of the tech big’s bid to stay aggressive in opposition to AI companies comparable to ChatGPT, which have threatened Google’s on-line search dominance.

His feedback again up BBC analysis from earlier this 12 months, which discovered that AI chatbots inaccurately summarised information tales.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI have been all given content material from the BBC web site and requested questions on it, and the analysis discovered the AI solutions contained “significant inaccuracies“.

In his interview with the BBC, Mr Pichai stated there was some rigidity between how briskly know-how was being developed and the way mitigations are in-built to stop potential dangerous results.

For Alphabet, Mr Pichai stated managing that rigidity means being ” daring and accountable on the identical time”.

“So we’re shifting quick by this second. I feel our customers are demanding it,” he stated.

The tech big has additionally elevated its funding in AI safety in proportion with its funding in AI, Mr Pichai added.

“For instance, we’re open-sourcing know-how which is able to assist you to detect whether or not a picture is generated by AI,” he stated.

Requested about lately uncovered years-old feedback from tech billionaire Elon Musk to OpenAI’s founders round fears the now Google-owned DeepMind may create an AI “dictatorship”, Mr Pichai stated “nobody firm ought to personal a know-how as highly effective as AI”.

However he added there have been many firms within the AI ecosystem right now.

“If there was just one firm which was constructing AI know-how and everybody else had to make use of it, I might be involved about that too, however we’re so removed from that state of affairs proper now,” he stated.