Sergey Brin, the Visionary Behind the New Spring of Artificial Intelligence at Google

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google’s parent company, Alphabet
Source: Getty Images

Brin’s decision to return to the company prompted the global media to speculate that Google was in competition with OpenAI, yet Brin remains cautious about these new technologies. He emphasizes the importance of responsible development, ethical implications, potential biases, and the overall safety of AI applications.

Brin had to experience the consequences of these concerns through the lens of several unfortunate incidents involving Google’s technology. These instances, however, only further strengthened his beliefs about the potential of artificial intelligence.

How did Sergey Brin evolve from a skeptic of AI and neural networks to one of the industry’s foremost innovators? This article explores Brin’s transformative journey, highlighting his changing convictions about the responsible development of emerging technologies through Google’s initiatives.

Google’s Path in AI: Major Growths and Failures

I didn’t pay attention to it [AI] at all, to be perfectly honest. Having been trained as a computer scientist in the 90s, everybody knew that AI didn’t work. People tried it, they tried neural nets and none of it worked.
— Sergey Brin at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in 2017

Brin didn’t foresee the AI revolution, but his company is rooted in innovation and technological exploration and has expanded the boundaries of technologies that are now widely accepted.

The company’s first steps into AI were with the formation of the Google Brain team in 2011, which was dedicated to exploring AI applications. According to the Wall Street Journal, Brin “expressed skepticism that they could crack artificial intelligence,” noting that he “ignored the work of the Brain Team” that he originally helped start. His mindset, however, shifted during the next five years as AI research advanced.

Google’s AI research has led to groundbreaking developments, including gradual AI-focused improvements to Google Search (the world’s most-used search engine), the development of Google Lumiere (an AI video generator), and the creation of DeepMind (a leader in AI for games and simulations). Given these contributions, Brin later recognized the Brain team’s success in advancing Google’s major products.

Google’s newest and most capable AI: Gemini
Source: Google

Gemini, originally marketed as Bard, is another Google product that Brin significantly influenced, including his involvement in AI research discussions and recruitment of researchers. While Gemini was panned early on for its tendency to generate images that distorted historical facts and cultural context, it is now competing with OpenAI and Anthropic models and serving millions of users monthly, being one of the most advanced LLMs to date.

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See also:

• ChatGPT vs. Bard: Who Deserves to Represent the Next Gen of AI?

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The Double-Edged Sword of AI

In the 2017 Alphabet Founders’ Letter to Investors, Brin described the time as a “technology renaissance,” in which technological advances permeated nearly every segment of modern society. He noted that this renaissance made safety paramount in AI development. According to Brin, “We’re in an era of great inspiration and possibility, but with this opportunity comes the need for tremendous thoughtfulness and responsibility as technology is deeply and irrevocably interwoven into our societies.”

The advance of artificial content generation and bot activity fuels fears for internet users, as the boundary between content made by people and content artificially generated is increasingly blurred. It leads to a decline in genuine human activity online, which in turn will negatively affect the further training of neural networks. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with Brin about these fears, as well as the impact of growing technologies, including AI, on society.

[AI] touches every single one of our main projects, ranging from searches to photos to ads, everything we do. This kind of revolution in deep nets has been very profound, it definitely surprised me, even though I was sitting right there.
— Sergey Brin at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in 2017

At the same time, Brin says that he is uncertain as to precisely where the future, particularly AI development, may take society.

It’s an incredible time, and it’s very hard to forecast what these things can do. We don’t really know the limits and in a hundred years if we imagine to ourselves these [things will be able to] do kind of everything we can imagine and more.
— Sergey Brin at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in 2017

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See also:

• Insights From WEF 2024: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, About the Future of Artificial Intelligence

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The Reason Sergey Brin Always Comes Back

Brin has always been a forward-thinker, pushing the boundaries of what technology can achieve. According to the WSJ, Brin has been spending three to four days a week collaborating with researchers to develop the company's next-generation AI systems. This renewed hands-on approach is a significant shift from the non-interventionist stance he adopted after stepping down from his leadership position at Alphabet in 2019.

The new spring in artificial intelligence is the most significant development in computing in my lifetime [...] The power and potential of computation to tackle important problems has never been greater.
— Sergey Brin in the 2017 Founders’ Letter to Investors

One of the factors that motivates Brin is Google’s “Innovation Time Off” policy, which allows employees to spend 20% of their work hours on personal projects that could benefit the company. This policy has led to the creation of several innovations, including Google News and AdSense.

The Crossroads: Accelerating Growth vs Practical Governance

I would hope that, as some of the more mundane tasks are alleviated through technology, people will find more and more creative and meaningful ways to spend their time.
— Sergey Brin at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in 2017

Humanity has reached a crossroads; the advancement of artificial technologies is accelerating faster than our ability to implement key controls. Sergey Brin has long championed the importance of responsible innovation in this arena, for over a decade advocating for a balanced approach.

Artificial intelligence is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather a diverse set of techniques, the outcomes of which will inevitably shape the future trajectory of technological development in innumerable ways. As the market continues to advance, users and developers alike need to consider the societal impact and ethical implications of AI systems, especially as they become more integrated into private aspects of our lives. Sergey Brin’s story is a testament to how even the world’s biggest skeptics should react: adapt.