Like every year, Google (now the parent company, Alphabet) has released the Founder’s Letter, outlining the progress and advancements of the company, also shedding light on the future, relating it to the past when it all was just a dream and Internet had just been conceived.
This year’s founder letter is actually different from the past years because Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who in the past were the ones who usually took the time out to write about the current state of Google and explain the path forward, have now handed the responsibility of listing out the future endeavors and vision of the company to the currently-appointed CEO, Sundar Pichai.
Brin in the founder’s Letter says that,
Since the majority of our big bets[divisions] are in Google, I wanted to give him[Pichai] most of the bully-pulpit here to reflect on Google’s accomplishments and share his vision.
So, what does the Indian origin CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai actually had to say in his first founder’s letter?
Pichai lays focus on six key aspects for Google’s growth and expansion, but what prominently stands out among all the pointers is his vision, where he sees the current computing technology to become obsolete quite soon, and completely taken over by AI(artificial intelligent) assistants. He believes, that,
Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the “device” to fade away. Over time, the computer itself—whatever its form factor—will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile first to an AI first world.
Google has been aggressively working on developing the most advanced AI platform of all, to power its search and DeepMind Technologies. And the recent win of Google’s AI, AlphaGo, over the legendary world champion, Lee Sodol reinforces what Pichai has actually mentioned in this letter. Pichai believes that the current computing technologies, at the pace which they are expanding further from just smartphones, tablets and PCs’s to cars, smartwatches, VR headsets and more, will become obsolete in the near future and will be replaced by just AI’s, who will help make our day to day work much easier.
AlphaGo’s win over Lee Sodol, is a very huge accomplishment for Google and it makes Pichai believe that AI’s could one day become so powerful, and connected that they could go from tackling everyday tasks to eventually tackling even bigger challenges like climate change and cancer diagnosis, which is a positive outlook towards the use of technology for the good of all.
So, this means that a world with AI-powered devices will soon be a reality, and we’ll be living in a world much similar to the movie ‘HER’, starring Scarlet Johansson and everyone would be able to better manage their time and live a healthy and positive life, with the artificial assistants looking after everything.
Finally, Sundar Pichai belives in the principal values of Google, and signs off saying,
Google will continue to strive to make sure that remains true—to build technology for everyone. Technology is a democratizing force, empowering people through information. [and] Google is an information company. It was when it was founded, and it is today. And it’s what people do with that information that amazes and inspires me every day.
