Sundar Pichai spoke about India’s evolving role in technology while speaking at the AI Impact Summit this morning, recalling how he once passed through Visakhapatnam – a sleepy port city that is now set to become a global AI hub with Google’s investments. Speaking to a large audience that included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the San Francisco-based Google CEO also shared a personal glimpse into his life.
Pichai, 53, talked about spending time with his parents in San Francisco, where they were able to experience Waymo’s fully self-driving ride. Pichai’s mention of Waymo served as an example of the broader technological advancement he talked about.
Sundar Pichai on Indian roots
The Madurai-born Google CEO said that during his college days, he would sometimes take the train between Chennai and IIT Kharagpur.
“To get there, we passed through Vishakhapatnam, Vizag,” Pichai said. “I remember it was a quiet, unassuming port city full of potential. Now, in that same city, Google is setting up an integrated AI hub, which is part of our $15 billion infrastructure investment in India.”
“Sitting on the train, I never imagined Vizag would become a global center for artificial intelligence, just as I never imagined that one day I would be spending time with teams figuring out how to put data centers in space, or taking my father for a ride in a fully self-driving car in San Francisco.
“When I saw Waymo through the eyes of my 83-year-old father, I saw progress in a whole new light,” he continued.
“Of course, he said he would be more impressed if it worked on India’s congested roads,” Pichai said to chuckles from the audience.
What is Waymo?
Waymo is a self-driving technology company and a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It is developing self-driving vehicles – cars and trucks – that use sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence to drive safely without human intervention.
Waymo started as Google’s self-driving car project in 2009 and became its own company in 2016. Today, it operates Waymo One, a commercial autonomous ride-hailing service in some U.S. cities, and is also testing self-driving trucks and delivery vehicles.
(Also Read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai arrives in India for AI Summit: ‘It’s nice to be back’)
