Sergey Brin Returns to Google: Spearheading AI Advancements

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Is Back at the Company 'Pretty Much Every Day.' Here's What He's Working On.

Brin acknowledged that not all of Google's AI efforts have been successful but says that it's important to get AI out there and take a risk -- even if it means embarrassment. After resigning as president of Google's parent company Alphabet in 2019, co-founder Sergey Brin is back at Google -- and working on AI "pretty much every day," he confirmed for the first time in a conversation with Climate Corporation co-founder David Friedberg earlier this week. In a fireside chat at the All-In Summit, Friedberg asked Brin about Google's plans for AI, including whether the company intends to focus its efforts on a huge, general-purpose AI model, also known as a "God" model. "If you can build the God model, you're done," Friedberg said. "There's this one thing to rule them all. Or is the reality of AI that there are lots of smaller models that do application-specific things?" Related: Google's AI Overview Has Changed Since Its Debut, and These Websites Have Benefitted the Most Brin said that 10 to 15 years ago, separate AI systems were needed for different tasks. A chess-playing AI, for example, was different from an image-generation AI. Google has historically used smaller AI models like these for specific tasks, and more recently even combined three separate models, for theorem proofs, geometry, and general language, to win a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. Though these smaller AI models have been effective, "the trend is to have a more unified model," Brin said. "I don't know if I would call it a God model," he said. "But certainly shared architectures and ultimately even shared models." Friedberg pointed out that if shared architectures and models were the future, AI systems would require more computational resources. Related: New Google Report Reveals the Hidden Cost of AI Brin said that while accelerating AI's capabilities would require "a lot" of resources, it may not be easy to predict how much, and current estimates may not take internal improvements into account. "The algorithmic improvements that have come over the course of the past few years are maybe even outpacing the increased compute that's being put into these models," Brin said. He added later that, "For us, we're building out compute as quickly as we can. We just have a huge amount of demand." Google's cloud customers want resources like specialized processors to train AI. According to Brin, Google has had to turn down customers because they don't have the resources to meet demand. Related: Ex-Google CEO Says the Company Fell Behind AI Rivals Because of Remote Work. Now He's Taking It Back. Meanwhile, Google launched a number of public-facing AI products, including AI overviews in Search and summaries for products like Gmail and Docs. On Tuesday, the state of Nevada announced that it will launch a Google-powered AI system to recommend whether unemployed workers in the state get benefits. Brin acknowledged that not all of Google's AI efforts have been successful. In a talk in March, he said that Google "definitely messed up" the launch of its Gemini image generator, which produced historically inaccurate images. Now he says that it's important to get AI out there and take a risk -- even if it means embarrassment. "Is this something magical that we're giving the world?" Brin asked. "I think as long as we communicate it properly -- like saying look this thing is amazing -- and we'll periodically get stuff really wrong, then I think we should put it out there and let people experiment and see what new ways they find to use it."

Sergey Brin says he's working on AI at Google 'pretty much every day' | TechCrunch

Google co-founder and ex-Alphabet president Sergey Brin said he's back working at Google "pretty much every day" because he hasn't seen anything as exciting as the recent progress in AI -- and doesn't want to miss out. Brin revealed the tidbit in an interview during the All-In Summit in L.A. this week. Last year, several publications reported that Brin was back at Google HQ working on various AI projects, but the sit-down is the first time Brin has publicly commented on his return. "It's a big, fast-moving field," Brin said of AI, adding that there is "tremendous value to humanity," before explaining why he doesn't think training more capable AI will require massively scaling up compute. "I've read some articles that extrapolate [compute] ... and I don't know if I'm quite a believer," he said, "partly because the algorithmic improvements that have come over the last few years maybe are actually even outpacing the increased compute that's being put into these models."

Google co-founder Sergey Brin on why he is 'back to office': "I just don't want to miss out on this..." - Times of India

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has confirmed his active involvement with Google on a daily basis. In a recent interview at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, the ex-Alphabet president emphasised that he is driven by AI excitement. While reports of Brin's return to Google HQ surfaced over a year ago, this interview marks the first time he has publicly addressed it. What Sergey Brin is working at Google When asked how much time he is spending at Google and what he is working on, Brin said that he is back at the company and is going to the office "pretty much every day", noting that he "missed today". He cited the recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence as his primary motivator, stating that he hasn't seen anything as exciting in the tech world before and doesn't want to miss out on the current developments. "As a computer scientist, I've never seen anything as exciting as all of the AI progress that's happened the last few years but it's kind of mindblowing," he said. "Every month there's like a new amazing capability and I'm doubly wowed as everybody else is that computers can do this. For me, I really got back into technical work because I just don't want to miss out on this as a computer scientist," he said. Google Search is a part of AI Brin also said that Search - one of the main businesses of the company - is an application of AI technology. He said that he uses AI to write code. "I just think that the AI touches so many different elements of day-to-day life and, sure, Search is one of them but it kind of covers everything," he said. For example, programming itself. The way that I think about it is very different now; writing code from scratch feels really hard compared to just asking the AI to do it," he added. Last year a report from The Washington Journal claimed that Brin has been more actively involved at Google's headquarters and attending more AI meetings at Google, marking a shift from his previously less engaged approach after stepping back from his executive position at Alphabet in 2019. The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk's news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity.