Could the AI boom be getting a little… overheated?
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, told the BBC that AI investment has sparked an “extraordinary moment.”
He said there’s a whiff of “irrationality” in the frenzy.
And yes, even Google wouldn’t be completely safe if the AI bubble bursts. “I think no company is going to be immune, including us,” he warned.
Pichai compared today’s AI hype to the dotcom days, when sky-high valuations and overinvestment eventually came crashing down.
“We can look back at the internet… there was clearly a lot of excess investment, but no one questions the internet’s impact,” he said.
He expects AI will be the same: profound, but with pockets of excess.
AI Expansion Challenges
Despite the risks, Google is in a strong position, thanks to its “full stack” approach—from chips to YouTube data to frontier AI research.
The company is also doubling down on the UK, investing £5bn over two years, including at DeepMind, while exploring ways to train AI models locally.
But Pichai didn’t shy away from challenges. AI’s energy appetite is huge, eating up 1.5% of global electricity last year.
He admitted climate targets might slip.
Jobs will evolve too, he said: “Those who adapt to AI will do better… it will transition certain jobs, and people will need to adapt.”
So, is the AI bubble a ticking time bomb or just a speed bump on the road to the future? Only time — and careful adaptation — will tell.
