Google president Matt Brittin has warned that artificial intelligence technology is “too important not to get right.”
AI has long been the subject of debate among tech companies, and whether the potential risks and drawbacks outweigh the positives it could bring.
“If we get it right, there could be huge breakthroughs in health, the potential for unlimited, clean energy, and a society where everyone has opportunities through education and powerful, intelligent tools. So this is a huge opportunity for us to do that,” said the president of Google for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The tech giant has partnered with the University of Cambridge where scientists and academics at the institution’s new Central for Human-Inspired AI will be given funding to research several areas where the technology could have an impact, including healthcare, climate change and robotics.
The partnership comes just before the UK’s AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, which will see major tech companies come together to discuss the potential future of the technology.
Currently, AI has been successfully utilized in several areas, including the aeronautics industry. Using AI tools, flight paths have been optimized to ensure the number of contrails – vapor trails from airplanes in the sky – are kept to a minimum.
Vice president of research at Google DeepMind, and professor of information engineering at Cambridge University, Zoubin Ghahramani told the BBC: “It may not seem like an obvious use, but it is actually very valuable to address the impact of air travel.”
Matt emphasized that it was Google’s priority to improve the climate change situation by using AI with DeepMind, as well as reducing their harmful emissions as much as possible: “I joined the company in 2007, and that was the year we became carbon neutral – we became one of the world’s biggest purchasers of renewables.”
