Google Prepares Funds of IDR 1.8 Trillion to Help AI Training Worldwide

HOLIDAY NEWS - Google's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai, recently announced funding plans of US$ 120 million, or around IDR 1.8 trillion, for artificial intelligence (AI) training needs. Speaking in front of participants at the Summit of the Future 2024 forum held by the United Nations (UN), Pichai described AI as the most rapid technological transformation today.

"To avoid the global AI gap," Pichai was quoted as saying in the Tech Crunch review, Saturday, September 21, 2024.

In the global agenda, he highlighted four big opportunities that could be developed with the help of AI. Artificial intelligence is considered to be able to help people access information in their respective countries. This cutting-edge technology can also accelerate scientific discoveries, support disaster monitoring and early warning systems, and boost economic progress.

The big opportunities he refers to are helping people access information in their own languages, accelerating scientific discovery, providing warnings and monitoring regarding climate disasters, and encouraging economic progress.

The AI training fund, which is called the 'Global AI Opportunity Fund', can help various communities around the world. Google can partner with non-profit institutions and community organizations to utilize these funds.

He also called for the importance of smart regulation to reduce losses caused by AI. Appropriate regulations are also urgent so that the use of AI can be optimized.

Re-Recruiting Talent in the AI field

Google recently poured US$ 2.7 billion, or around Rp. 40.8 trillion, to recruit AI technicians who had previously left. Noam Shazeer, a skilled software engineer previously left Google for his own startup.

Referring to a report by The Wall Street Journal quoted by the New York Post, Shazeer left because management refused to release the chat bot he developed with a colleague, Daniel De Freitas. Shazeer and De Freitas then founded Character.AI, which has grown into one of the most popular AI startups in Silicon Valley, with a valuation of over US$ 1 billion by 2023.

Google is predicted to pay US$ 2.7 billion to license the Character.AI technology. However, Google employees expect the deal to bring back Shazeer and his team.