Google CEO Baffled by Suggestion That AI Will Take People’s Jobs
Futurism
The Verge interview (Nilay Patel) around Google I/O 2023
“for 20 years of tech automation, people have predicted all kinds of jobs would go away. Movie theaters were supposed to end ... I’m willing to almost bet 10 years from now, maybe there are more lawyers, I don’t know. So it’s not exactly clear to me how all this plays out.”
Sundar Pichaireported 12 May 2023- What you'll lose2/5
Jobs, possibly fine, he guesses.
- Condescension3/5
'Movie theaters were supposed to end.'
- Tone-deafness3/5
Said during the Hollywood writers' strike over AI.
- Doom0/5
None.
- Hypocrisy0/5
None.
Full time8 pitchforksof a possible 25
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The occasion
The Verge interview (Nilay Patel) around Google I/O 2023, reported 12 May 2023.
Context
Patel asked about white-collar work, lawyers in particular, being displaced by AI. Pichai said predictions of tech automation wiping out job categories had not fully played out, and that he did not know how it would go. Patel pointed to the Hollywood writers' strike over AI during the exchange. Date is the publication date of the interview.
Crowd reaction
Critical commentary
Futurism (2023-05-13) mocked the answer as flustered and out of touch given the writers' strike over AI. One outlet's commentary; no wider reaction found. The Fortune article covers the same interview but words the answer differently and does not contain the movie-theater lines.