Google CEO Admits They Don’t Know How Their AI Works

(ConservativeInsider.org) – While Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for years, it is now coming into the public eye and garnering quite a bit of scrutiny. As programs like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing AI engine, and Google’s Bard gain momentum, people are realizing how life-like the technology seems and have even fallen for tricks or misinformation shared by the programs. During a recent interview with Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared how he doesn’t even fully understand how the technology his company is spearheading works.

On Sunday, April 16, CBS aired a new episode of “60 Minutes,” where Pichai and Pelley spoke about the quickly advancing technology of AI. During the exchange, the Google and Alphabet CEO described what leaders in the industry call a “black box,” where they “don’t fully understand” how it works or how it jumps to a certain conclusion or why it provides a particular answer.

The pair used an example of an AI program seeming to learn the Bengali language without having been taught it. However, AI researcher Margaret Mitchell noted in a Twitter thread that Google once used a “PaLM” model, which was an AI program that had, in fact, learned Bengali. She questioned why Google’s top leadership was allowing what she believes are false claims to go public:

8. So how could it be that Google execs are making it seem like their system "magically" learned Bengali, when it most likely was trained on Bengali?

— MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) April 17, 2023

She believes such claims may just help generate talk about Google’s AI, which is often what public relations departments want.

During the interview, Pelley asked the Google leader if he believes Bard is “safe for society.” Rather than giving a straight and encouraging answer, Pichai said that with “the way we have launched it today, as an experiment in a limited way, I think so.” From this interview, Americans can see that while AI researchers do have a decent handle on the technology they created, the people running those businesses, such as Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, may not fully understand the technology they have approved and are now monetizing.