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

Folks mustn’t “blindly belief” every thing AI instruments inform them, the boss of Google’s guardian firm Alphabet instructed the BBC.

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

Mr Pichai mentioned it highlighted the significance of getting a wealthy info ecosystem, reasonably than solely counting on AI expertise.

“For this reason folks additionally use Google search, and we’ve got different merchandise which can be extra grounded in offering correct info.”

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

He instructed the BBC: “We take satisfaction within the quantity of labor we put in to provide us as correct info as potential, however the present state-of-the-art AI expertise is susceptible to some errors.”

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

From Might 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 mentioned the mixing of Gemini with search signalled a “new section of the AI platform shift”.

The transfer can be a part of the tech large’s bid to stay aggressive in opposition to AI companies similar 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 had 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 mentioned there was some pressure between how briskly expertise was being developed and the way mitigations are inbuilt to stop potential dangerous results.

For Alphabet, Mr Pichai mentioned managing that pressure means being ” daring and accountable on the similar time”.

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

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

“For instance, we’re open-sourcing expertise which can assist you to detect whether or not a picture is generated by AI,” he mentioned.

Requested about not too long ago uncovered years-old feedback from tech billionaire Elon Musk to OpenAI’s founders round fears the now Google-owned DeepMind might create an AI “dictatorship”, Mr Pichai mentioned “nobody firm ought to personal a expertise as highly effective as AI”.

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

“If there was just one firm which was constructing AI expertise and everybody else had to make use of it, I’d be involved about that too, however we’re so removed from that situation proper now,” he mentioned.