The head of Google’s parent company says his firm and every other tech business would take a hit if the artificial intelligence industry crashes, as worries grow over sky-high prices and massive spending in the sector.
Sundar Pichai, who runs Alphabet, told the BBC on Tuesday that the present surge in AI spending represents an “extraordinary moment” but said he sees “elements of irrationality” in how the market behaves. His words bring to mind past warnings about “irrational exuberance” from the dotcom crash years ago.
Market watchers have been arguing about whether current AI company prices make sense. When asked how Google would handle a possible market crash, Pichai said his company could probably manage but stressed. “I think no company is going to be immune, including us.”
Alphabet’s stock price has jumped about 46% since January, driven by investor confidence in its ability to take on ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
American financial regulators have started worrying that inflated AI prices are dragging down wider markets. British officials have also raised red flags about bubble dangers. As reported by Cryptopolitan, some analysts have downplayed these bubble concerns, though they acknowledge some investors will likely get burned.
Billions pour into British AI development
Last September, Alphabet announced it would pour £5 billion into British AI infrastructure and research over two years. The money will fund a new data center and boost DeepMind, the AI research lab based in London.
During his interview at Google’s California offices, Pichai revealed the company plans to start training AI models in Britain. Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants this investment to help make his country the world’s third major AI power behind America and China.
Pichai also sounded the alarm about AI’s “immense” power requirements and admitted Alphabet’s climate goals will slip as the company ramps up its computing capacity. Tech companies are issuing massive bonds to fund data center expansion, with facilities expected to consume enormous amounts of electricity in coming years.
The Alphabet boss told the BBC that people need to stop taking everything AI systems say at face value. He pointed out that AI models are “prone to errors” and pushed users to combine them with other resources.
Pichai said this shows why having multiple information sources matters instead of depending only on AI. “This is why people also use Google search, and we have other products that are more grounded in providing accurate information.”
AI tools work well “if you want to creatively write something,” Pichai explained, but people “have to learn to use these tools for what they’re good at, and not blindly trust everything they say.”
He added: “We take pride in the amount of work we put in to give us as accurate information as possible, but the current state-of-the-art AI technology is prone to some errors.”
Gemini battles to win back users
Tech insiders have been waiting for Google’s newest consumer AI model, Gemini 3.0, which has started winning back users from ChatGPT. The Gemini system has faced criticism over accuracy issues and controversial outputs in the past.
Starting in May, Google rolled out a fresh “AI Mode” in its search engine, bringing in its Gemini chatbot to give users the feeling of talking to a specialist.
Back then, Pichai called the merger of Gemini with search a “new phase of the AI platform shift.”
The strategy helps the tech giant stay in the race against AI services like ChatGPT, which have threatened Google’s lead in online search.
Pichai’s statements match BBC research from earlier in the year that showed AI chatbots getting news stories wrong. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI all made “significant inaccuracies” when asked to summarize BBC website content.
Pichai acknowledged tension exists between how quickly tech develops and how fast safety measures get built in.
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