Interview with Google executives: Internet freedom and openness are under threat-BBC News

Pichai is the CEO of Google, one of the most complex, important, and wealthiest institutions in history.

I talked to him at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters. This was the first interview in a series of interviews I conducted for the BBC with global figures.

As the boss of Google and its parent company Alphabet, he is the ultimate leader of various artificial intelligence pioneer companies or products such as Waze, FitBit and DeepMind. At Google alone, he is responsible for overseeing Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Docs, Google Photos, Android operating system and many other products.

But by far the most familiar one is the Google search engine, which has even become a verb of its own: to Google.

In the past 23 years, Google has probably shaped most of the free and open Internet we have today more than any other company.

Pichai believes that in the next 25 years, two other developments will further change our world: artificial intelligence and quantum computing. In the vast and empty Google Silicon Valley headquarters, leaves rustling, and the sun is shining, Pichai emphasized the importance of artificial intelligence.

“I think this is the most influential technology ever developed and researched by mankind,” he said. “You know, if you think of fire, electricity or the Internet, that’s it. But I think it’s more important.”

Fundamentally speaking, artificial intelligence is an attempt to replicate human intelligence in a machine. Various artificial intelligence systems are already better at solving specific types of problems than humans. To eloquently explain the potential harm of artificial intelligence, try this article by Henry Kissinger.

Quantum computing is a completely different phenomenon. Ordinary computer calculations are based on the binary state of matter: 0 or 1. There is nothing in the middle, which is also called bits.

But at the quantum or subatomic level, matter behaves differently. It can be 0 or 1 at the same time, or above the spectrum between the two. Quantum computers are built on qubits, which take into account the probability that matter is in one of a variety of different states. This is incredible, but it can change the world. Wired has a good explanation article.

Pichai and other leading technologists find the possibilities here exciting. “(Quantum) doesn’t apply to everything. There are some things that we calculate today are always better. But quantum computing will open up a whole new range of solutions for certain things.”

Pichai emerged in Google and was once regarded as the most effective, popular and respected product manager in Google’s history.

The browser Chrome and the mobile operating system Android were not his ideas. Android was once led by Andy Rubin. But Pichai is the product manager, and he leads the product to the world under the watchful eye of the founder of Google.

In a sense, Pichai now has to deal with the infinite and huge challenges brought by artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Google faces a series of scrutiny and criticism in many aspects every day, to cite three aspects: taxation, privacy and privacy. Alleged monopoly.

Google is on the defensive on tax-related issues.

Over the years, Google has paid huge sums to accountants and lawyers to reduce their tax obligations in a legal way.

For example, in 2017, Google transferred more than US$20 billion to Bermuda through a Dutch shell company as part of its “Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich” strategy.

When I asked him this question in person, Pichai said that Google no longer uses this plan and is currently one of the largest taxpayers in the world and abides by the tax laws of every country where it operates.

I replied that his answer just revealed the problem: this is not just a legal issue, but an ethical issue. The poor usually do not hire accountants to reduce their tax bills; large-scale tax avoidance is what the wealthiest people in the world do, and I hinted to him that this may weaken collective sacrifices.

When I suggested that Pichai made a promise that Google would immediately withdraw from all tax havens, he did not accept this proposal.

However, he did make it clear that he was “encouraged by the dialogue surrounding the global minimum tax for companies”.

Obviously, Google is working with policymakers to find ways to make taxation easier and more effective. Indeed, most of the company’s research and income are generated in the United States, which is where it pays most of its taxes.

Moreover, it paid 20% of actual taxes in the past ten years, which is more than many companies. Nevertheless, the use of any tax haven will bring reputational risks to the company, especially when all parts of the world are taxing ordinary people, borrowing money, and raising trillions of dollars to alleviate the new crown pandemic.

Another big question facing Google is around data, privacy, and whether the company has an effective monopoly in the search field, and it is completely dominant in this regard.

In the last aspect, Pichai said that Google is a free product and users can easily go to other places.

This is the same argument used by Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s company received strong support from Washington, D.C. Judge James Boasberg last month, when he rejected A series of antitrust cases against the social media giant on the grounds that it did not meet the current definition of monopoly (ie, “the power to profitably raise prices or eliminate competition”).

The exchanges about privacy, data, taxation, and dominance in search are probably the most intense exchanges I have had with Pichai, and can be heard in the podcast version.

In preparation for the interview, I talked to a dozen current or former Google executives, other executives from large technology companies, regulators, and technology industry strategists. There are strong and reliable opinions and consensus in each camp.

Those who work in the technology industry say that Google’s share price rise under Pichai’s leadership is indisputable. It has almost tripled, which is an outstanding performance. If Google’s success is explained by the prevailing trend of profiting from consumer behavior, this does not capture the point, although it may have helped other technology companies develop.

Google has created consumer behavior with amazing engineering and world-class products.

In most cases, regulators have stated that they need to design new laws and languages ​​to better scrutinize this new type of corporate giant, which is hardly public. Judge Boasberg’s decision on Facebook confirmed this. Interestingly, the new 32-year-old FTC boss, Lina Khan, previously argued that the definition of monopoly should be expanded to reflect this new world.

Senior managers of other large technology companies were shocked by Pichai’s effective public performance. His testimony in Congress rarely caused Google’s stock price to fall. His gentle attitude and grasp of details enable him to prescribe poison from potentially difficult situations.

He is a low-key, gentle character, largely silent about himself-which is why the Google employees who watched the interview know him more (people present say they know).

In a series of quick questions, we found that he does not eat meat, drives a Tesla, admires Alan Turing (Alan Turing), hopes he will meet Stephen Hawking (Stephen Hawking), and is jealous of Jeff Bay The space mission of Jeff Bezos.

It is interesting to find all this from such an influential figure, precisely because he has not made many public statements. For example, on Independence Day in the United States, you won’t see him riding an electric hydrofoil surfboard while holding an American flag and listening to the sound of John Denver’s country roads on Instagram.

What I heard from the people who worked with him or worked for him most affected my direction in this interview.

Pichai is generally regarded as a very kind, considerate and caring leader. According to everyone I interviewed who knew him, he was considerate to his employees and truly committed to being an ethical role model. When talking about the impact of technology on improving living standards, he is an idealist, which stems from his growth experience, and we discussed this in detail.

He was born in a middle-class family in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Various technologies have had a transformative effect on him, from their waiting for the old dial dial phone to the scooter where they gather for dinner every month.

At Google, he won the support of engineers and software developers. He himself is a metallurgical engineer, which helps him, but it is still not easy; the think tank of Silicon Valley companies contains many of the most conceited people on the planet. However, they respect him very much.

Pichai follows the countercyclical leadership appointment method favored by many headhunters. After the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin must have pioneering, enthusiastic, and adventurous leaders, there is a low-key, steady, and cautious leader to alleviate public anxiety And attract public officials.

Pichai performed well in these latter tasks, and the company’s stock price performed well. Not many people in history can say that they have created $1 trillion in value as CEOs.

But according to former Google employees and many other close observers, the qualities that make him a wise counter-cyclical appointment also indicate potential pitfalls. Importantly, these critics are usually technology communicators, and their priorities are different from ordinary ones. People are very different.

Technology communicators agree on several points.

First, Google is now a more cautious company than ever before (Google will of course dispute this, and others will say that if this is true, it would be a good thing).

Second, Google has a bunch of “Me-Too” products, not original ideas; in a sense, it sees other people have made great inventions, and then it uses its engineers to improve they.

Third, many of Pichai’s big bets have failed: Google Glass, Google Plus, Google Wave, Project Loon. Google can reasonably argue that experimentation and failure are valuable. And this is quite in conflict with the first point above.

Fourth, Google’s ambition to solve the biggest problem of mankind is waning. In a small patch of land south of San Francisco gathered the world‘s largest PhD in computer science, and there is this argument: shouldn’t Google reverse climate change or solve cancer? I find this kind of criticism difficult to reconcile with Pichai’s record, but it is very common.

In the end, he deserves great sympathy, because in the era of culture wars, it is basically impossible to manage a large, stubborn, demanding, and idealistic employee like Google. Google often appears in the news these days, because employees strike due to diversity or salary issues; or key figures leave due to controversial issues such as identity.

Google has more than 100,000 employees, many of whom are very opinionated on internal message boards and are essentially activists, which is beyond your control. Google truly embraces cognitive diversity by having people with various opinions among its global employees, and at the same time, as a company, it has to break through. There is a tension between the two.

The above are all the concerns of people in the science and technology community, they hope Google will go faster. In polarized democracies, many voters want large technology companies to slow down.

The most obvious lesson taught me during my time in Silicon Valley is that this situation cannot happen. Acceleration is the norm: the acceleration of history is itself an acceleration.

When I asked whether China’s Internet model-more authoritarian and more focused on surveillance-is in the ascendant, Pichai said that the free and open Internet is “under attack.” Importantly, he did not directly mention China, but went on to say: “Our main products and services are not available in China.”

Facts have proved that legislators and regulators are slow, ineffective, and easy to lobby. The pandemic has taken the attention of all walks of life. Now, the democratic West largely depends on people like Pichai to determine our future direction. where.

He thinks he should not take all the responsibilities. What about you

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