Sergey Brin Explains His Google Return and AI Focus at I/O Convention

Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a shock look onstage on the firm’s flagship I/O developer convention Tuesday, the place he defined why he is returned to the tech large and what he is realized from the failure of Google Glass over a decade in the past.

It is the newest signal that Google goes hardcore on AI. Brin has been again at Google to assist develop its AI merchandise since 2023 because the search large races in opposition to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and he shared about what he is been as much as since returning to the trenches.

Brin wasn’t anticipated to talk on the discuss, which Google billed solely as an interview of its DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. He joked, “I torture individuals like Demis, who’s fairly superb. He tolerated me crashing this hearth.”

Within the chat with Hassabis, Brin mentioned he comes into Google “just about every single day now” to chip in on coaching the newest fashions from Gemini. It is one thing that naturally pursuits him, the famously technical co-founder mentioned.

“I are typically fairly deep within the technical particulars,” Brin mentioned. “And that is a luxurious I actually take pleasure in, happily, as a result of guys like Demis are minding the store. And that is simply the place my scientific curiosity is.”

Since returning to Google, Brin additionally attended final yr’s I/O, the place he fielded reporters’ questions on AI.

Studying from Google Glass

On the 2012 Google I/O convention, Brin famously demoed a video wherein he wore Google Glass whereas skydiving to indicate off the tech large’s earlier foray into wearables. This yr, he additionally addressed Google Glass, which it stopped promoting a decade in the past.

On the Tuesday hearth, Brin mentioned Google Glass’s failure stemmed partly from his lack of expertise about manufacturing and provide chains.

“I simply did not know something about shopper digital provide chains, actually, and the way arduous it could be to construct that and have it at an affordable value level,” he mentioned.

Brin is way extra bullish on Google’s newest wearables enterprise: “XR,” or Prolonged Actuality, glasses. On the hearth chat, he mentioned he thinks AI is way extra succesful now for such a product.

Enterprise Insider was in a position to snap an image of the usually reclusive billionaire making an attempt the XR glasses on earlier than the hearth chat, too: