On Jan 5, TOI front-paged an interaction with Sundar Pichai. But there was much more said in his freewheeling conversation with Vikas Singh and Kim Arora . Read on for insights on everything from demonetisation to AI
When you come to India, what excites or frustrates you the most?
Each time, I see the progress in India in many small ways. The first time I took a plane was when I left for the US. Yesterday, I had a chance to meet some of the CEOs of the largest Indian airlines...there are close to 100 million people who fly in India now. The trends are all in the right direction. I met with some old friends in Bengaluru...they are starting and running schools. The ideas I heard are no different from what some of the best schools in the US are thinking about. India looks very entrepreneurial. People are very creative and determined. Short of traffic, most things seem to be getting better (laughs).
Internet traffic too?
That is getting better too. The carriers are doing a great job bringing more connectivity. Smartphone adoption is well under way. We'd like to see it grow even faster. We need to push the price point for entry-level smartphones further down...a $30 price point, I think, for it to truly reach the next level. And we would like to help play a role with Android.
Any New Year resolutions?
Every year we write what we call OKRs, our Objectives and Key Results for the year. I will share it with the entire company when I go back by second or third week of January. I have a long plane ride back in which to finalise my objectives.
Can you give us a heads up on what you might be writing?
(laughs) Well, we're hiring at Google. You can join, and you'd get to know them as well.
But 2016 was a big year for us. We made a big bet on machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) and how we can use it to make our services better. We think of this as an important point of inflexion. This year we brought out products like the Google Assistant and Google Home. Pixel also has the assistant built in. I view that as a foundation for how we think about things for the next many years. A lot of our goals will be about increasing our focus on AI and bringing it to our users.
How far away are we from Terminator and Rise of the Machines?
I don't think about it that way. The scenarios I am excited by are bringing AI to assist humans to do many things better. It's odd for me to think of this as a mutually competitive thing. I don't think that's how technology has been put to use historically.
Google tried its hand at social networks with Wave, Buzz, Orkut, Google+. These couldn't scale or sustain.
What has Google learnt from that?
We want to always work on ambitious things and by definition, we won't succeed in everything we do. It's impossible to be very ambitious and not fail. When we write our company objectives, if we meet 70% of our objectives, we consider that as a success. If we meet 100% of our objectives, we always think we didn't write them ambitiously enough. I think that's fine. To me, what's much more important is, are we continuing to innovate? Are we at the forefront of applying computer science to solve problems for our users consistent with our mission? I think we do that, and we have to do that every year, and in the future too.
Besides AI, Google had earlier talked of working on translation.
How close are you to making something where I speak in English and you listen to it in Tamil?
It's progressing remarkably fast. But I think it's not going to be just about translation like you just described. You have to improve computing experience — hardware, software, everything so all of that can work in real time. This is what I talked about — a transition from a mobile-first to AI-first world. Intelligent computing must be available for you when you need it so you can interact with it in more natural ways. I'd be disappointed if in five years we are not able to do what you just described.
You've said earlier that you almost did not get selected when you applied to Google. What was your first interaction with Google like?
I interviewed with Google on April 1 of 2004. They had launched Gmail, and it was invite-only. But Google also did an April Fools' joke, and I wasn't even sure if it had launched. So people were all asking me about Gmail and what I thought of it. But they hadn't exactly given it to everyone. So, it was quirky, and I realised that they took things lightly, but deep down, they were serious about the work they were doing. That was my first impression of Google.
What was your first meeting with co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin like?
I do recall a meeting in which we were speaking. And from under the table, out came Larry. I didn't know Larry was there. Our projector system wasn't working ...Larry was down there trying to fix it.
How often do you meet them?
I see them every week. My exchanges with them are always a big part of how I think about what to do. I value that a lot.
Why is an India tailoring of a product limited to launching a less data-hungry version of a regular product?
As we invest more in India and add more people, you will see products that are more substantial.
When you come to India, what excites or frustrates you the most?
Each time, I see the progress in India in many small ways. The first time I took a plane was when I left for the US. Yesterday, I had a chance to meet some of the CEOs of the largest Indian airlines...there are close to 100 million people who fly in India now. The trends are all in the right direction. I met with some old friends in Bengaluru...they are starting and running schools. The ideas I heard are no different from what some of the best schools in the US are thinking about. India looks very entrepreneurial. People are very creative and determined. Short of traffic, most things seem to be getting better (laughs).
Internet traffic too?
That is getting better too. The carriers are doing a great job bringing more connectivity. Smartphone adoption is well under way. We'd like to see it grow even faster. We need to push the price point for entry-level smartphones further down...a $30 price point, I think, for it to truly reach the next level. And we would like to help play a role with Android.
Any New Year resolutions?
Every year we write what we call OKRs, our Objectives and Key Results for the year. I will share it with the entire company when I go back by second or third week of January. I have a long plane ride back in which to finalise my objectives.
Can you give us a heads up on what you might be writing?
(laughs) Well, we're hiring at Google. You can join, and you'd get to know them as well.
But 2016 was a big year for us. We made a big bet on machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) and how we can use it to make our services better. We think of this as an important point of inflexion. This year we brought out products like the Google Assistant and Google Home. Pixel also has the assistant built in. I view that as a foundation for how we think about things for the next many years. A lot of our goals will be about increasing our focus on AI and bringing it to our users.
How far away are we from Terminator and Rise of the Machines?
I don't think about it that way. The scenarios I am excited by are bringing AI to assist humans to do many things better. It's odd for me to think of this as a mutually competitive thing. I don't think that's how technology has been put to use historically.
Google tried its hand at social networks with Wave, Buzz, Orkut, Google+. These couldn't scale or sustain.
What has Google learnt from that?
We want to always work on ambitious things and by definition, we won't succeed in everything we do. It's impossible to be very ambitious and not fail. When we write our company objectives, if we meet 70% of our objectives, we consider that as a success. If we meet 100% of our objectives, we always think we didn't write them ambitiously enough. I think that's fine. To me, what's much more important is, are we continuing to innovate? Are we at the forefront of applying computer science to solve problems for our users consistent with our mission? I think we do that, and we have to do that every year, and in the future too.
Besides AI, Google had earlier talked of working on translation.
How close are you to making something where I speak in English and you listen to it in Tamil?
It's progressing remarkably fast. But I think it's not going to be just about translation like you just described. You have to improve computing experience — hardware, software, everything so all of that can work in real time. This is what I talked about — a transition from a mobile-first to AI-first world. Intelligent computing must be available for you when you need it so you can interact with it in more natural ways. I'd be disappointed if in five years we are not able to do what you just described.
You've said earlier that you almost did not get selected when you applied to Google. What was your first interaction with Google like?
I interviewed with Google on April 1 of 2004. They had launched Gmail, and it was invite-only. But Google also did an April Fools' joke, and I wasn't even sure if it had launched. So people were all asking me about Gmail and what I thought of it. But they hadn't exactly given it to everyone. So, it was quirky, and I realised that they took things lightly, but deep down, they were serious about the work they were doing. That was my first impression of Google.
What was your first meeting with co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin like?
I do recall a meeting in which we were speaking. And from under the table, out came Larry. I didn't know Larry was there. Our projector system wasn't working ...Larry was down there trying to fix it.
How often do you meet them?
I see them every week. My exchanges with them are always a big part of how I think about what to do. I value that a lot.
Why is an India tailoring of a product limited to launching a less data-hungry version of a regular product?
As we invest more in India and add more people, you will see products that are more substantial.
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