Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai took the stage at the UN Summit of the Future, announcing a $120 million Global AI Opportunity Fund aimed at AI education and training worldwide, while advocating for balanced regulation to prevent an "AI divide."
Speaking at the summit on Saturday, Pichai hailed AI as “the most transformative technology yet,” outlining its potential to drive sustainable development in four key areas: helping people access information in their own language, accelerating scientific discovery, providing alerts and tracking around climate disasters, and fueling economic progress.
However, Pichai did not shy away from addressing the risks AI presents, highlighting concerns around deep fakes but notably sidestepping the topic of AI's climate impact. He emphasized the need for action to avoid a global “AI divide,” introducing Google’s new $120 million fund, which will partner with local nonprofits and NGOs to ensure AI education and training reach communities worldwide.
In addition to the fund, Pichai called for “smart product regulation” to mitigate AI’s potential harms, cautioning that heavy-handed, protectionist regulation could widen the existing AI divide and hinder the technology’s benefits.