On the red-hot topic of AI , Pichai says he sees the technology as “ an extraordinary platform shift ”, and expects it to “ touch pretty much everything – every sector and industry , and every aspect of our lives ”.

He adds : “ One way to think about AI is it ’ s no different from how we thought about the PC shift , the Internet shift , the mobile shift .

“ But it ’ s deeper than that . It ’ s the most profound technology humanity is working on .”

On the broader subject of the World Wide Web , Pichai says : “ I ’ ve cared about the Web for a long time , but I think it belongs to no one , and there is inherent value in that .

“ And there are aspects of the Web which are stronger than most people realise , but I won ’ t underestimate the power of AI . As it becomes multimodal , the distinction we feel between text and images and video will blur over time .

“ Today , we feel those walls . At Google , we ’ ve always tried to bridge these things . We try to bring all these forms together .”

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