Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces $120 million fund for global AI education

Speaking at the United Nations Future Summit on Saturday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as “the most transformative technology ever” and announced a new fund for AI education and training worldwide.

Pichai highlighted four major opportunities he sees for AI and sustainable development: helping people access information in their own language, accelerating scientific discovery, providing warnings and tracking of climate disasters, and fueling economic progress.

Pichai acknowledged that AI also poses risks, for example with deep fakes, although he did not mention AI’s impact on the climate.

He added that he wanted to avoid a “global AI divide” and that Google was creating a $120 million Global AI Opportunities Fund through which it will “make AI education and training available in communities around the world” in partnership with local nonprofits and NGOs.

On the same theme, Pichai called for “regulation of smart products that mitigates harm and resists national protectionist impulses” — otherwise, he predicted, regulation could “widen the AI ​​gap and limit the benefits of AI.”