The Exchanges

Q in some of the biggest product rollouts and, I mean, Google Chrome, right? Google Drive, things that are now almost indispensable for so many people. How did you kind of see your place in the company, you know, at that time? I mean, Did it feel like you were part of something really big? Was it hard to have that kind of perspective? What do you remember about that time?

A Definitely Google felt like a special place. I got exposure to the founders early on, and very clearly talking to them, you had a sense. They were very, I would call, unique thinkers. As a pair of them, they would always come at problems with a very, very different viewpoint, and so it felt unique. They were very ambitious in everything they set out to do, and, you know, at Google at any given time, there were a lot of projects. Some of them were Crazy. And so, so you had a sense that this was different, but at the same time, I always sensed the power of the internet. That's why I came to Google. And so I realized for the first time, you're going to have a technology which is really going to touch billions of people. And over time, can I really be accessible to more people than prior versions of computing and technology? So, you know, you had the sense that this was going to be something really big, and you were part of, I'm talking about the internet now, and You're part of a bigger movement, too, so a combination of all that made it feel pretty unique.

AI assessment note: “you had the sense that this was going to be something really big”

Q lot of strife, because people are not around each other, and there's been a lot of miscommunication and challenges, and so I wonder what you think of, in 10 years' time, will people be coming into the office every day, or do you think that it's, we're now permanently in a new kind of work environment, at least with, with, with technology work and the work that you guys do?

A I think the future of work will definitely be way more flexible than what it's been in the past. And I think that's here to stay. And 10 years out from now, you will definitely see employees having a lot more flexibility. So at least speaking for technology companies and the companies like ours, we as a company have internalized that, right? And I think, you know, and we are embracing it as an opportunity to think about how that future looks. Uh, to be very clear, we see a lot of value in people coming together, fostering the community, a sense of a place where a creative environment so that people come together and can solve problems and build on each other. So the way I think about the future is we will have purpose-built times and spaces where people will be able to come together and do all that. But people will have a lot more agency and flexibility in their lives. And just like, 20 years ago, you know, I, I think Google challenged a lot of notions of what a workplace could be. The fact that you could mix fun and work together in the same space.

AI assessment note: “I think the future of work will definitely be way more flexible than what it's been”

Q reputation for being a quiet leader. Before I get to that, I want to understand How you kind of learned to become a leader, because you are running a company that's much bigger than GE ever was today, and much bigger than what Jack Welch had to do, and you had to become that person over time. So tell me, when you started to think of yourself as a leader?

A You know, one of my mentors was someone called Bill Campbell. He was a football coach at Columbia and later, uh, you know, mentored a lot of CEOs. He was a CEO himself. And he had this famous saying, I may quote it wrongly now, but it's basically, you know, you don't become a leader of people. It's your people who make you a leader. I think for me that always resonated. So I didn't focus much on how I'm going to be a leader as much as Whatever I was doing, you know, was fully committed to making it successful, including the people who work for me. So always approach it as trying to help make what we are working on be more successful, including particularly the people I worked with. So being really vested in their success and their outcomes and going the distance to do that. And so I guess that's the process by which it unfolded. And so maybe somewhere along the line, I realized I was making this transition, but it was more natural for me, and the second thing was I realized being a leader also allowed you to scale and work on more than one problem at a time, and so that appealed a lot to me as well, so it's probably a combination of both of those things.

AI assessment note: “somewhere along the line, I realized I was making this transition”

Q things have happened. And I'm talking about things I heard eight, nine years ago. Um, tell me where you see now Glimmers of light coming through that are within grasp because I know Google is investing so much money into this technology and it encompasses so many different things. So give me sort of the 35,000 foot view of what AI will do. What's it going to mean to us?

A Look, I, um, always thought the company should be, and that's how the founders started to be, should be focused on deep computer science and technology to help solve problems, and AI just happens to be one of the most important technological advances, so hence the focus on AI. You know, when I look at the journey, one of the great things about AI is, in some ways, it's an abstract concept, and the more AI starts doing things, we kind of take it for granted. Right. And so it kind of bakes into the system, and the expectations keep shifting. And, you know, we recently had an event called Google I.O. where, as a company, we talk about all the things we do, Uh, leading up to the event, I was reflecting on how AI is impacting all our products, right? Countless ways. And if you're in Gmail, and you're typing something, and we give the, all these suggestions for you to complete, or to send quick replies back, that actually works on machine learning and AI. We now translate across many, many languages, and it is seamless. And in fact, now we are going deep and adding Some of the rarer languages in the world, but very, very important for the people who speak it.

AI assessment note: “if you're in Gmail, and you're typing something, and we give the, all these suggestions”

Q a lot. And, and I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong. I just think it's so complicated to be A corporate leader today when your employees are saying, look, you've got to come out and speak about these things. I mean, I know you have in the past and you've addressed some of these things, but how do you know when to weigh in and when to say nothing?

A It's a good question. Uh, I think you're right in the sense that the job of a CEO today, I think has gotten more complex. And, and I think one of the reasons as you think about leadership, Empathy and being able to lead with empathy, I think, is an increasingly important skill. I think people want to know you care, and, you know, I think, you know, companies need to be values driven, but I think you need to be focused, and you need to have a set of values you passionately care about, and you're very clear in what those values are, and you build a track record. Over time. So if you've done the hard work, I think no single moment becomes as magnified. But if you haven't done that, I think a single moment can play out in a much bigger way. So there's no easy answer as much as I think, you know, as a company, we deeply care about our employees. There are certain things we have, we have, we deeply care about as a company as well, be it making technology more accessible, uh, you know, uh, or, Sustainability. Making sure we have a diverse and representative workforce. So, you know, you have a set of values which you're very clear about. And I think, I think, you know, supporting free speech around the world. So, you know, you, you, you choose the issues which are more core to who you are as a company and, and what matters to your employees. And, and with that framework, I think if you…

AI assessment note: “you choose the issues which are more core to who you are as a company”

Q In the future, do you see AI being a greater source of revenue for a company like Google over, say, advertising?

A You know, as I became CEO, I, you know, I wanted the company to think of its technology approach as AI first is because I see that long-term opportunity, and so when you look at our business, for example, like Google Cloud, through which we are offering technology to other companies, we will Give them AI capabilities as well. So I think that'll be a big business opportunity. But above all, I think AI is a foundational technology which equally will make search better to maybe one day make, you know, self-driving cars work safer and much better. And so it kind of cuts across everything we do. And so I think these are two different dimensions. How we make money over time will be different than the fact that AI will power a lot of what we do as a company. But it will help us both diversify and create new businesses, and that's part of our long-term view on it, which is why I'm excited about both the amount of work we do there, but also the fact that we lead the way in many of the foundational areas there.

AI assessment note: “it kind of cuts across everything we do. And so I think these are two different dimensions.”