Editor’s note: Today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed world leaders gathered at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India. What follows is a transcript of the remarks, as prepared for delivery.
Thank you, Prime Minister Modi, and distinguished leaders. It is wonderful to be back in India. Every time I visit, I am struck by the pace of change and today is no different.
Back when I was a student, I often took the Coromandel Express train from Chennai up to IIT Kharagpur. To get there we passed through Visakhapatnam — Vizag. I remember it being a quiet and modest coastal city, brimming with potential.
Now, in that same city, Google is establishing a full-stack AI hub, part of our $15 billion infrastructure investment in India. When finished, this hub will house gigawatt-scale compute and a new international subsea cable gateway, bringing jobs and the benefits of cutting-edge AI to people and businesses across India.
New era of discovery
Sitting on that train, I never imagined Vizag becoming a global AI hub.
Just as I couldn’t have imagined that I’d one day be spending time with teams figuring out how to put data centers into space…
Or taking my parents for a fully autonomous car ride in San Francisco.
Seeing a Waymo ride through my 83-year-old dad’s eyes, I saw the progress in a whole new light.
Of course he said he’d be more impressed if it worked on India’s busy roads — still working on that one, Dad.
This progress shows what’s possible when humanity dreams big.
And no technology has me dreaming bigger than AI.
It is the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes.
We are on the cusp of hyperprogress and new discoveries that can help emerging economies leapfrog legacy gaps.
But that outcome is neither guaranteed nor automatic. To build AI that is truly helpful for everyone, we must pursue it boldly, approach it responsibly and work through this defining moment together.
Act bold
Why bold?
Because AI can improve billions of lives and solve some of the hardest problems in science.
For fifty years predicting protein structures was a grand challenge — and a blind spot that stalled drug discovery.
Demis Hassabis and his team at Google DeepMind asked an audacious question: “how could we use AI to solve this?”
That question led to AlphaFold. This breakthrough didn’t just win a Nobel Prize; it compressed decades of research into a database that is now open to the world. Today, over three million researchers in more than 190 countries are using it to develop malaria vaccines, fight antibiotic resistance and much more.
Isomorphic Labs is taking this further into drug discovery, re-imagining what it takes to bring life-saving medicines faster with AI.
And we are asking similarly bold questions across the scientific stack, from cataloging DNA disease markers to building AI agents that act as true partners in the scientific method.
We must be equally bold in tackling problems in regions that have lacked access to technology.
Take El Salvador, for example, where Google has partnered with the Government to bring affordable, AI-powered diagnosis and treatment to thousands who could never afford to see a doctor.
Or in India, where our work together is helping farmers protect their livelihoods in the face of monsoons. Last summer, for the first time, the Indian government sent AI-powered forecasts to millions of farmers, possible in part because of our Neural GCM model.
I see language inclusion as another exciting ambition. In Ghana, we’re collaborating with universities and NGOs to expand research and open-source tools across more than twenty African languages.
We need this bold thinking in more places to tackle more problems across health, education, economic opportunity and more.
Be responsible
Technology brings incredible benefits, but we must ensure everyone has access to them.
We cannot allow the digital divide to become an AI divide.
That means investing in compute infrastructure and connectivity.
I mentioned our Vizag investment, and we have others in Thailand, Malaysia and more. We are also building a vast network of subsea fiber optic cables, including four new systems between the U.S. and India., as part of our America-India Connect Initiative.
Responsibility also means navigating profound economic shifts. AI will undeniably reshape the workforce — automating some roles, evolving others and creating entirely new careers. Twenty years ago, the concept of a professional “YouTube Creator” didn’t exist; today, there are upwards of 60 million around the world.
Training is crucial. We’ve trained 100 million people in digital skills, and our new Google AI Professional Certificate will help people master AI in their jobs, available globally.
Finally, trust is the bedrock of adoption. We’ve created tools like SynthID, used by journalists and citizen fact checkers globally to help verify the authenticity of the content you read and see.
Work through this moment together
But no matter how bold we are, or how responsible, we won’t realize AI’s full benefits unless we work together.
Governments have a vital role. That includes as regulators, setting important rules of the road and addressing key risks.
And also as innovators — bringing AI to public services that improve lives and accelerating adoption of these technologies for people and businesses.
There are glimmers of this from around the globe:
From the Ugandan government using AI and satellite imagery to locate priority areas for electrification… to getting potholes fixed for residents more efficiently in Memphis, Tennessee by using AI scans of road surfaces from buses. Tech companies must also step up — building products that boost knowledge, creativity and productivity to help people achieve their dreams.
And importantly, we also need companies of all sizes thinking about this — harnessing AI to innovate and transform their businesses and sectors, and to skill up and empower workers.
We have the opportunity to improve lives at a once-in-generation scale.
I know we have the capability to do this. And looking at the leaders here today, I believe we also have the will.
Now we must do the work, together.
Thank you.
