‘We Got It wrong,’ Sundar Pichai Opens Up About Google’s Gemini Controversy & Layoffs

Google's Gemini had created several controversial images of famous personalities in the world, later on which Pichai called Gemini’s controversial responses as ‘unacceptable’.

Written by: Anirudha Yerunkar Edited by: Anirudha Yerunkar

Published: May 9, 2024, 2:37 PM IST

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https://www.india.com/business/we-got-it-wrong-sundar-pichai-opens-up-about-googles-gemini-controversy-layoffs-6915308/ Copy

Google CEO Sundar said he takes full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, opened up about controversy over images generated by Google’s Gemini. The CEO of Alphabet Inc gave an interview on “The Circuit with Emily Chang” at Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California, US. Wherein he spoke about what went wrong for the company and also about recent layoffs.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai On Gemini Controversy

Sundar Pichai said that artificial intelligence (AI) has been a key focus of Google parent Alphabet since 2016, he added “We weren’t the first company to do search. We weren’t the first company to do email. We weren’t the first company to build a browser. So I view this AI as we are in the earliest possible stages.”

When asked about the recent controversy over images generated by Google’s Gemini, Sundar Pichai said, “We got it wrong. From the ground up we are retraining these models, just to make sure we are also making the product better. As soon as it’s ready, we will get it out to people,’’ reported Hindustan Times.

Sundar Pichai On Google’s Future

About Google’s future, he said getting search right is essential to the company as ads between search results have generated $300 billion annual revenue. He said, “We’ve always found people want choices, including in commercial areas, and that’s a fundamental need. We’ve been experimenting with ads and the data we see show that those fundamental principles will hold true.”

“People are trying to solve problems in their day-to-day lives. A lot of our products integrate in a way that provides value for our users. The way Google is approaching AI drives innovation, adds choice in the market. That’s how I think about it,” he added, “The challenge for everyone and the opportunity is: How do you have a notion of what’s objective and real in a world where there’s going to be a lot of synthetic content? I think it’s part of what will define search in the next decade ahead.”

Sundar Pichai On Google Layoffs

Google has recently laid off approximately 200 employees from its core team. Google had also fired 28 employees involved in protests over the tech company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. Pichai opened up about the layoffs after the protest and said, “It has nothing to do with the matter or the topic they’re discussing. It’s about the conduct of how they went about it. I view, particularly in this moment with AI, the opportunity we have ahead of us is immense, but it needs a real focus on our mission.”